“It was a scary thought. A man could be surrounded by poetry reading and not know it.”

“She ventured to hope he did not always read only poetry; and to say, that she thought it was the misfortune of poetry, to be seldom safely enjoyed by those who enjoyed it completely; and that the strong feelings which alone could estimate it truly, were the very feelings which ought to taste it but sparingly.”

“Scary thought - what if I get to know myself and I'm someone I don't want to be?”

“To read a poem with no thought in mind but to paraphrase it into a single, simple and usually high-minded prose statement is the destruction of poetry.”

“At breakfast!' said Louise in an awed voice. 'A man who can read poetry at breakfast would be capable of anything.”

“And as if he had read her thoughts, the old man murmured, 'What a blessing it is to die in your own bed, under your own roof, with your family surrounding you, full of the knowledge that you have lived as thoroughly as you wanted to.”