“You may find that knowledge is not so great a thing as belief or hope.”

“I'm the biggest nerd you'd want to meet. There are bigger, but you don't want to meet them.”

“But for life's little defeats and indignities, I would be happy, content and completely average.”

“I don't play to lose, only to win or learn. Mostly learn.”

“Some things you can't find out; but you will never know you can't by guessing and supposing: no, you have to be patient and go on experimenting until you find out that you can't find out.”

“You know the great thing, though, is that change can be so constant you don't even feel the difference until there is one. It can be so slow that you don't even notice that your life is better or worse, until it is. Or it can just blow you away, make you something different in an instant”

“A Russian imbues his polite things with a heartiness, both of phrase and expression, that compels belief in their sincerity.”