“If the world weren't such a beautiful place, we might all turn into cynics”

“Turn around, and the people you thought you knew might change. Your little boy might now live half a world away. Your beautiful daughter might be sneaking out at night. Your ex-husband might by dying by degrees. This is the reason that dancers learn, early on, how to spot while doing pirouettes: we all want to be able to find the place where we started.”

“After all the world is indeed beautiful and if we were any other creature than man we might be continuously happy in it.”

“If you're looking to take a long, beautiful drive through life, you might not want to take the cynic view.”

“If this was cynical, then we must allow that all courtship is cynical.”

“After that, we weren't the same anymore. We'd become men. Disillusioned and cynical. Slightly bitter too. We had nothing. We hadn't even learned a trade. No future. Nothing but life. But life without a future is worse than no life at all.”