“Workdays are, I imagine, rather like learning to ice-skate Torvill and Deans The Bolero. They start and end easily enough; its the bit in the middle that causes the pain in the arse.”

“Character and purpose are directly linked to confidence and conviction. What links them? Courage to be oneself, no matter what others might say.”

“You need to be outdoors. Away from here. You need a holiday.”

“Compromise is a choice. As is the defence of ones self.”

“In with the new, out with the old. Thats what were told. We have to change, adapt, compromise.”

“Change, it seems, is inevitable. And so is compromise.”

“A man is biologically incapable of giving the look.”

“If we could survive without a wife, citizens of Rome, all of us would do without that nuisance; but since nature has so decreed that we cannot manage comfortably with them, nor live in any way with...”

“When we are at peace within our marriage, the effects can be astounding! We will raise happier children, become better employees, and overall find the joy in life.”

“Some people claim that marriage interferes with romance. There's no doubt about it. Anytime you have a romance, your wife is bound to interfere.”

“There are many things that make a man irritable when he arrives home from work in the evening and a sensible wife will usually notice the storm-signals and will leave him alone until he simmers down.”

“Oblivion, she thought. That was the world she lived in. It was what they should name some countries, towns, and places.”

“A lot of men wouldn't like being called a romantic. It's not macho enough.'Quite often men are fools.”