They were not only ignorant but cynical. Tell them that this man has used his position to enrich himself and they would ask you –as my father did—if you thought that a sensible man would spit out the juicy morsel that good fortune placed in his mouth. (Chapter 1)

For what is modesty but inverted pride? We all think we are first-class people. Modesty forbids us from saying so ourselves though, presumably, not from wanting to hear it from others. (Chapter 1)

I remember him saying for instance that the greatest delight of his entire visit to Britain was when, for the first time in his twenty-seven years, a white man—a taxi driver I think—carried his suitcase and said “Sir” to him. (Chapter 2)

…I have, since this incident, come up against another critic who committed a crime in my view because he transferred to an alien culture the same meanings and interpretation... (Chapter 5)