Robert Teeter

“Yes, what would Russia be without me?" he [Tsar Nicholas I] said to himself, again sensing the approach of the unpleasant feeling. "Yes, what would, not just Russia, but Europe be without me?" And he remembered his brother-in-law, the king of Prussia, and his weakness and stupidity and shook his head.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Hadji Murád

“Janet! Donkeys!”
― Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

“You have just confirmed to me that one of the most fortunate purposes of literature is to bring like-minded people together and get them talking.”
― Laurence Cossé, A Novel Bookstore

“In previous years, they might have spent hours in the cellar, on their feet, never seeing the time go by nor feeling their legs, and they would go back upstairs at closing time enthralled, radiant, a bit drunk, and there were more and more of them who, when they got back to Paris or Basel, would tell those around them, 'I only ever buy my books in Meribel now, once a year; obviously I've had to change my suitcase (my car / my leisure time / my life)' . . . .”
― Laurence Cossé, A Novel Bookstore