1
" It is of no use mincing the matter; Dr John Marsh, after being regarded by his friends at home as hopelessly unimpressible—in short, an absolute woman-hater—had found his fate on a desolate isle of the Southern seas, he had fallen—nay, let us be just—had jumped over head and ears in love with Pauline Rigonda! Dr Marsh was no sentimental die-away noodle who, half-ashamed, half-proud of his condition, displays it to the semi-contemptuous world. No; after disbelieving for many years in the power of woman to subdue him, he suddenly and manfully gave in—sprang up high into the air, spiritually, and so to speak, turning a sharp somersault, went headlong down deep into the flood, without the slightest intention of ever again returning to the surface. "
― R.M. Ballantyne , The Island Queen: Dethroned by Fire and Water: A Tale of the Southern Hemisphere
2
" . Nature's so terribly good. Don't you think so, Mr. Stanhope?" Stanhope was standing by, silent, while Mrs. Parry communed with her soul and with one or two of her neighbours on the possibilities of dressing the Chorus. He turned his head and answered, " That Nature is terribly good? Yes, Miss Fox. You do mean 'terribly'?" " Why, certainly," Miss Fox said. " Terribly--dreadfully--very." " Yes," Stanhope said again. " Very. Only--you must forgive me; it comes from doing so much writing, but when I say 'terribly' I think I mean 'full of terror'. A dreadful goodness." " I don't see how goodness can be dreadful," Miss Fox said, with a shade of resentment in her voice. " If things are good they're not terrifying, are they?" " It was you who said 'terribly'," Stanhope reminded her with a smile, " I only agreed." " And if things are terrifying," Pauline put in, her eyes half closed and her head turned away as if she asked a casual question rather of the world than of him, " can they be good?" He looked down on her. " Yes, surely," he said, with more energy. " Are our tremors to measure the Omnipotence? "
6
" Sometimes it's moments like that, real complicated moments, absorbing moments, that make you realize that even hard times have things in them that make you feel alive. And then there's music, and girls, and drugs, and homeless people who've read Pauline Kael, and wah-wah pedals, and English potato chip flavors, and I haven't even read Martin Chuzzlewit yet... There's plenty out there. "
― Nick Hornby , A Long Way Down