“The whole difference between the nineteenth century and the twentieth century could be summed up in two words, graveyard and cemetery.”

“In the nineteenth century, the central moral challenge was slavery. In the twentieth century, it was the battle against totalitarianism. We believe that in this century the paramount moral challenge will be the struggle for gender equality around the world.”

“Because it is written by a nineteenth-century American, and because of its closeness to the twentieth century, The Portrait of a Lady foregoes Victorian affirmations. The price it pays, however (together with several twentieth-century novels) is that it eventually leaves the reader, along with its heroine, 'en Vair' amid its self-reflections.”

“The chief business of twentieth-century philosopy is to reckon with twentieth-century history.”

“Death and vulgarity are the only two facts in the nineteenth century that one cannot explain away. ”

“WHORES.Necessary in the nineteenth century for the contraction of syphilis, without which no one could claim genius.”