“Macaulay is like a book in breeches…He has occasional flashes of silence, that make his conversation perfectly delightful.”

“As much as I love her, I admit that she has always remained somewhat of an enigma to me…
I liked this about her. I liked the mystery she added to my life. I liked the occasional silence between us, for ours was a comfortable silence. It was a passionate silence, one that had its roots in comfort and desire.”

“2144. He that has no Fools, Knaves nor Beggars in his Family, was begot by a Flash of Lightning.”

“I chose the title of the book from Oliver Wendel Holme’s subtitle to his Aristocrat of the Breakfast Table; Every man His own Boswell. I was a miscellanist before I attempted a full length book. I learnt the art of narration from Boswell. After all even Macaulay, in spite of many hard things he said of Boswell, did acknowledge that he was the first of biographers and the world has since considered him the greatest.”

“He was the chief of all the horses; and when he snorted, it was a flash of lightning and his eyes were like the sunset star.”

“God, he thought, her eyes are so bright, flashing, deep, full of promise, all those things eyes are in books but never are in life, and she was his.”

“[C]onstitutional silences, like silences of other kinds, aren’t just occasional gaps or omissions in an otherwise-seamless design. They’re everywhere and come in as many flavors and varieties as sounds. Ambiguity and multiplicity of meanings are in a sense manifestations of silence.”

“most people are perfectly afraid of silence”

“I own a book,' he thought, delighted (Paolini 291).”

“In the highest civilization, the book is still the highest delight. He who has once known its satisfactions is provided with a resource against calamity.”