“When Beethoven made sharp response to a letter from his brother Karl, who embellished his signature with the phrase “land-owner,” the composer added “brain-owner” to his own autograph.”

“In fact, his adult brain acted like his adolescent brain used to. It stopped functioning. All it wanted to do was wrap itself around the owner of that scent and purr.”

“The parrot had a range of phrases. His own name ('Niko, Niko'), the name of his original owner and now 'Stavros'. Occasionally he would also say 'Panagia mou', which could be an expression of piety but also a gentle expletive, depending on how it was said. With the parrot it was hard to tell. It did not sound pious.”

“A dog can express more with his tail in minutes than an owner can express with his tongue in hours.”

“A conservationist is one who is humbly aware that with each stroke [of the axe] he is writing his signature on the face of the land.”

“He was the owner of the moonlight on the ground, he fell in love with the most beautiful of the trees, he made wreaths of leaves and strung them around his neck.”