“The only constant in the soul of man is inconstancy; anything and everything else can pass out of fashion--even something as utilitarian as a hill stuffed full of corpses.”

“The only thing of which we can be sure—time passes—everything else is vanity.”

“[U]nlike positive utilitarianism or so-called preference utilitarianism - neither of which can ever be wholly fulfilled - [negative utilitarianism] seems achievable in full.”

“All things are inconstant except the faith in the soul, which changes all things and fills their inconstancy with light, but though I seem to be driven out of my country as a misbeliever I have found no man yet with a faith like mine.”

“Music is the great uniter. An incredible force. Something that people who differ on everything and anything else can have in common.”

“What is man but a little soul holding up a corpse?”

“The only thing about a man that is a man… is his mind. Everything else you can find in a pig or a horse.”

“It belongs to the imperfection of everything human that man can only attain his desire by passing through its opposite.”

“Whenever I get into something, I shut out everything else.”

“Always be reading something, he said. Even when we're not physically reading. How else will we read the world? Think of it as a constant.”