But he didn't have to listen to his father. Taking after your father was optional, wasn't it?

A life was owned by the person who lived it, he believed. What happened didn't always happen because you wanted it to, but what you made of it was your responsibility.

There are brown eyes in the world, after all, as well as blue, and one pair of brown that meant heaven to me as the blue had never done

One who wishes to cross the ocean first builds a ship.

You can only fail to pick the Castellan's pocket once

There's no such thing as bad weather - only the wrong clothes.

Success in the marketplace increasingly depends on learning. Yet most people don't know how to learn.

I think the British government's cutting back of arts funding is such a crime. I bet it will happen in Denmark soon, too.

Every effort is made in forming matrimonial alliances to reconcile matters relating to fortune, but very little is paid to the congeniality of dispositions, or to the accordance of hearts.

I trust pictures, but no pictures made in my world - because I know what goes on.

Everything that scares you is an opportunity to know your best self better.

I love men, the restlessness of their corrupted souls, the way they hide their heavy, murderous hearts, their sudden delicacies and small shocking acts of tenderness.