Memory overshadows the present and dims the future "into something thicker than its usual pea soup."

We hasten to alienate the very fates we intended to woo.

...All my best words are deserters and do not answer the trumpet call, and the remainder are cripples.

I was also supposed to quiz my various companions on a number of important matters such as nostalgia, fear of unknown animals, food fantasies, nocturnal emissions, hobbies, choice of radio program, changes in out look and so forth.

Genius is finding the invisible link between things.

Use unlikely materials. Who would choose Pnin as hero, but how did we live before Pnin?

Adultery is a most conventional way to rise above the conventional.