“The public for which masterpieces are intended is not on this earth.”

“Leadership is for those who love the public good and are endowed and trained to administer it.”

“Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you.”

“Camila had intended to be perfunctory and if possible impudent, but now she was struck for the first time with the dignity of the old woman. The mercer's daughter could carry herself at times with all the distinction of the Montemayors and when she was drunk she wore the grandeur of Hecuba.”

“The very angels themselves cannot persuade the wretched and blundering children on earth as can one human being broken on the wheels of living.”

“He regarded love as a sort of cruel malady through which the elect are required to pass in their late youth and from which they emerge, pale and wrung, but ready for the business of living.”

“Good-by, Good-by, world. Good-by, Grover's Corners... Mama and Papa. Good-by to clocks ticking... and Mama's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new-ironed dresses and hot baths...and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you.”