He spent his life immersed in books to the cost of everything else, even personal relationships. "Friends," he'd once said, "are probably great, but I have forty thousands friends of my own already, and each of them needs my attention.

The best plans are always the simplest.

For a taste that's a bit more distinct, eat a bird before it's extinct.

I got Oedipus off the incest charge--technicality, of course--he didn't know it was his mother at the time.

Sometimes I don't know whether I'm thening or nowing.

I'll tell you what love is" I said, "It is blind devotion, unquestioning self humiliation, utter submission, trust and belief against yourself and against the whole world, giving up your heart and soul to the smiter.

It wasn’t going to be hard…it was going to be impossible. It wouldn’t deter me. I'd done impossible things several times in the past, and the prospect didn’t scare me as much as it used to.