“Good work, like good talk or any other form of worthwhile human relationship, depends upon being able to assume an extended shared world.”

“In trying to justify the humanities, as in trying to live a life, what may turn out to matter most is holding one's nerve.”

“A different voice may be particularly effective in disturbing the existing participants into re-examining matters they had come to take for granted.”

“Depth of understanding involves something which is more than merely a matter of deconstructive alertness; it involves a measure of interpretative charity and at least the beginnings of a wide responsiveness.”

“Nate jumped up and down, voice cracking as he talked. "It worked! It worked! My Taser worked! Ha! Oh yeah, oh yeah! I can't believe I got this thing on eBay!”

“A first premonition of the rich variety of life had come to him; for the first time he thought he had understood the nature of human beings - they needed each other even when they appeared hostile, and it was very sweet to be loved by them.”

“For the more a man limits himself, the nearer he is on the other hand to what is limitless; it is precisely those who are apparently aloof from the world who build for themselves a remarkable and thoroughly individual world in miniature, using their own special equipment, termit-like.”