“Debts are subject to the laws of mathematics rather than physics. Unlike wealth, which is subject to the laws of thermodynamics, debts do not rot with old age and are not consumed in the process of...”

“Unless, of course, one chose to join the increasing numbers who had decided they were so deep in despair that there was nothing worse to fear in life. These were men who had finally, and so early, ...”

“Jimmy put in a word and told them that if I made it, I wouldn't be able to live with myself without paying them back. That I'd sooner die than owe anyone money for helping me. Apparently Jimmy knew...”

“The ideas of debtor and creditor as to what constitutes a good time never coincide.”

“One thing seems certain. Our galaxy is now in the brief springtime of its lifea springtime made glorious by such brilliant blue-white stars as Vega and Sirius, and, on a more humble scale, our own ...”

“When you stir your rice pudding, Septimus, the spoonful of jam spreads itself round making red trails like the picture of a meteor in my astronomical atlas. But if you stir backwards, the jam will ...”

“You are exporting disorder [in the form of heat into the Universe] now as you read this book. You are hastening the demise of everything that exists, bringing forward by your very existence the arr...”

“The more interest you show in your spouse, the more interest your spouse will show in you.”

“Man is encased, as though in a shell, in the particular ranking of the simplest values and value-qualities which represent the objective side of his *ordo amoris*, values which have not yet been sh...”

“I knew people were talking, but I wasn't listening. I wasn't interested in anything anyone had to say.”