“The moment when a man's head drops off is seldom or never, I am inclined to think, precisely the most agreeable of his life.”

“To my thinking, a great librarian must have a clear head, a strong hand, and, above all, a great heart. And when I look into the future, I am inclined to think that most of the men who achieve this greatness will be women.”

“When I think of what life is, and how seldom love is answered by love; it is one of the moments for which the world was made.”

“this has been a birthday best forgotten.”“Most birthdays are, milord,” his man said agreeably”

“I am not inclined to use hip-hop vernacular often, but there are times when, like French, it just better expresses the sentiment of the moment”

“I am a wicked man... But do you know, gentlemen, what was the main point about my wickedness? The whole thing, precisely was, the greatest nastiness precisely lay in my being shamefully conscious every moment, even in moments of the greatest bile, that I was not only not a wicked man but was not even an embittered man, that I was simply frightening sparrows in vain, and pleasing myself with it.”