Charles Finch quotes:

...It had been a perfect nap -- the sort a man runs into now and again by chance...

There's nowhere that life feels more eternal, your dimwit youth more important, than Paris.

When you became a student at Oxford you realized both your own mortality, in the flow of this near-millennium of students, and also the small particle of immortality that attaches to you when you begin to belong to an immortal place.

When you're my age, you'll see that it is wiser to make your own decisions than let time make decisions for you.

The two things, love and snow, that make the world look fresh again

Are you going to give a speech?' she asked gaily. He gave a choked laugh. 'Of course not,' he said. 'Not for ages.' 'My cousin Davey gave one on his very first day!' ... 'In the Lords, I remember. It was about how he didn't like strawberry jam.' 'Be nice, Charles! It was a speech about fruit importation, which I admit devolved into something of a tirade.' She couldn't help but laugh. 'Still, you could talk about something more important.' 'Than jam? Impossible. We mustn't set the bar too high, Jane.

Her strength was in the integrity of her actions; she never compromised what she believed she ought to do.

Like everyone I slipped into adulthood like a delinquent through the back door.