“A new book was not one of a number of similar objects, but was like an individual man, unmatched, and with no cause of existence beyond himself.”

“There is a Beatrice who exists beyond the obligations of a daughter, outside the object of man's affections.”

“No one can become a new man except by entering the Church, and becoming a member of the body of Christ. It is impossible to become a new man as a solitary individual. The new man means more than the individual believer after he has been justified and sanctified. It means the Church, the Body of Christ, in fact it means Christ himself.”

“Beyond it is the incalculable. In other words, numbers cannot exceed the number of things there are: so that for the teller and the audience of this tale, numbers still are attached to objects.”

“The man who has a library of his own collection is able to contemplate himself objectively, and is justified in believing in his own existence.”

“The greatest good to the greatest number will obviously be reached when each individual of the greatest number is doing the greatest good to himself.”