Quoting, like smoking, ... is a dirty habit to which I am devoted. But then ... I am a professor of English literature; it is an occupational hazard.

as the years go on a sense of deep patience comes over one; one seems to know the virtue of ripeness, and the danger of rushing events.

Professors of literature collect books the way a ship collects barnacles, without seeming effort.

one sank into the ancient sin of anomie when challenges failed.

Male friends do not always face each other; they stand side by side, facing the world.

Most full lives are filled with empty gestures.

The compulsion to find a lover and husband in a single person has doomed more women to misery than any other illusion.