Amory thought how it was only the past that seemed strange and unbelievable.

but I felt that Tom would drift on forever seeking, a little wistfully, for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game

They were stars on this stage, each playing to an audience of two.

There's no beauty without poignancy and there's no poignancy without the feeling that it's going, men, names, books, houses--bound for dust--mortal--

Very well then, better a sane crook than a mad puritan.

Life is progressive, no matter what our intentions.

Eighteen might look at thirty-four through a rising mist of adolescence, but twenty-two would see thirty-eight with discerning clarity.