Quotes from book
Innocence

Innocence
Penelope Fitzgerald

Innocence is a novel by British author Penelope Fitzgerald. Set in Italy, it is a comedy of manners concerning the marriage of the young daughter of an old but impoverished aristocratic family, and a beginning neurologist who has tried to cut himself off from emotion.

“There are dilettantes in human relationships just as there are, let's say, in politics.”

Penelope Fitzgerald book Innocence

Innocence (1986)

“A serious thinking adult had no defence against innocence because he was obliged to respect it, whereas the innocent scarcely knows what respect is, or seriousness either.”

Penelope Fitzgerald book Innocence

Innocence (1986)
Context: He struggled to keep his temper. It struck him that both Marta and Chiara took advantage of him by attacking him with their ignorance, or call it innocence. A serious thinking adult had no defence against innocence because he was obliged to respect it, whereas the innocent scarcely knows what respect is, or seriousness either.

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