“Just as an astronomer, alone in an observatory, watches night after night through a telescope the myriads of stars, their mysterious movements, their changeful medley, their extinction and their flaming-up anew, so did Jacob Mendel, seated at his table in the Cafe Gluck, look through his spectacles into the universe of books, a universe that lies above the world of our everyday life, and, like the stellar universe, is full of changing cycles.”

“While other creatures of the evolution are just watching the universe, man alone has the power to change the fate of the universe.”

“You can't photograph the hugest mysteries of the universe that really have nothing to do with what shows up before your eyes, under a microscope, through a telescope, in the pages of books.”

“During the night, angels stared down through the stars into Jacob's world. They watched him sleep. They commented on the way his body folded on the bed. They liked this man. They drew their wings over him and stood guard by his soul.”

“Man stands alone in the universe, responsible for his condition, likely to remain in a lowly state, but free to reach above the stars.”

“His eyes are like a telescope. I look into them and I'm transported across the universe to a world I've never been.”