"You will take satisfaction in thinking about this little arrangement, though at the same time it will seem possible material for a short red-ink expose story in the newspaper you own, and now you tell yourself that thinking about it is really a waster of time." Prologue, pg. 9

"He related the story of Gonzalo Bernal's last moments in Perales, and the doors of the home opened to him." Chapter 2, pg. 32

"He was always so pure," said the father, Don Gamaliel Bernal. "He always believed that action contaminates us and obliges us to be false to ourselves unless it is presided over by very clear thinking. I believe that was shy he left home." Chapter 2, pg. 32

"Unfortunate land, said the old man to himself as he walked slowly back to the library, unfortunate land where each generation must destroy its masters and replace them with new masters equally ambitious...