Table for Two Quotes

“The personality of a man always poses the biggest obstacle to his own education, thought Charlie. He’s either too proud, too stubborn, or too timid to submit to the process of discovery. Many of life’s lessons come through trial or tribulation, and the cost of those lessons shouldn’t be taken lightly. But at least half of what a man hasn’t learned in his lifetime he could have learned with ease. This is one of the insights that comes with age—when one understands the nature of discovery but no longer has the time or energy to submit to its splendors. Thus, we are doomed to end our days in an ignorance largely of our own making.”
― Amor Towles, Table for Two

“The limitations of choosing a twenty-pound turkey as the centerpiece of the Thanksgiving meal have only been compounded by the inexplicable tradition of having every member of the family contribute a dish. Relatives who should never be allowed to set foot in a kitchen are suddenly walking through your door with some sort of vegetable casserole in which the “secret ingredient” is mayonnaise. And when cousin Betsy arrives with such a mishap in hand, one can take no comfort from thoughts of the future, for once a single person politely compliments the dish, its presence at Thanksgiving will be deemed sacrosanct. Then not even the death of cousin Betsy can save you from it, because as soon as she’s in the grave, her daughter will proudly pick up the baton.”
― Amor Towles, Table for Two

“It is a funny aspect of life, thought Charlie, how a group of grown people can convince themselves to do something that none of them really want to do. They start by talking an idea into existence. Once the idea begins to take shape and dimension, they'll talk away their hesitations, replacing them with all the supposed benefits, one by one. They'll talk away their instincts and their second thoughts and their common sense too, until they are moving in lockstep together toward some shared intention that doesn't appeal to any one of them.”
― Amor Towles, Table for Two

“No one is born pompous. To attain that state requires a certain amount of planning and effort. Presumably you could achieve it by a variety of means, but one sure way is to attend an old prep school that’s a little past its prime; while there, exhibit some facility in a field sport that you will never have cause to play again; room with a fellow whose name is over the library door; and along the way, gain familiarity with a pastime that requires travel and specialized apparel—such as duck hunting or downhill skiing. Follow these simple steps and you are sure to gain the necessary self-assurance to expound authoritatively on wine, politics, and the lives of the less fortunate—and to generally go on and on about anything else.”
― Amor Towles, Table for Two

“One of the indisputable charms of the Metropolitan Museum is that the admission of twenty dollars is “recommended.” The very notion of a recommended fee is so perfectly aristocratic. For to set a definitive price on access to the riches of the world’s cultures after the robber barons had gone to such trouble to pillage them on our behalf would simply have been tacky.”
― Amor Towles, Table for Two

“is a funny aspect of life, thought Charlie, how a group of grown people can convince themselves to do something that none of them really want to do. They start by talking an idea into existence. Once the idea begins to take shape and dimension, they’ll talk away their hesitations, replacing them with all the supposed benefits, one by one. They’ll talk away their instincts and their second thoughts and their common sense too, until they are moving in lockstep together toward some shared intention that doesn’t appeal to any one of them.”
― Amor Towles, Table for Two

“That Thanksgiving has evolved over hundreds of years into a national holiday of eating is rather ironic given the quality of Thanksgiving food. Stuffing and roasting a twenty-pound turkey is, without a doubt, the worst possible way to enjoy a game bird. The whole notion of eating a game bird is to savor those subtleties of flavor that elude the domesticated hen. Partridge, pheasant, quail are all birds that can be prepared in various ways to delight the senses; but a corn-fed turkey that’s big enough to serve a gathering of ten or more is virtually impossible to cook with finesse. The breasts will inevitably become as dry as sawdust by the time the rest of the bird has finished cooking. Stuffing only exacerbates this problem by insulating the inner meat from the effects of heat, thus prolonging the damage. The intrinsic challenge of roasting a turkey has led to all manner of culinary abominations. Cooking the bird upside down, a preparation in which the skin becomes a pale, soggy mess. Spatchcocking, in which the bird is drawn and quartered like a heretic. Deep frying! (Heaven help us.) Give me an unstuffed four-pound chicken any day. Toss a slice of lemon, a sprig of rosemary, and a clove of garlic into the empty cavity, roast it at 425° for sixty minutes or until golden brown, and you will have a perfect dinner time and again. The limitations of choosing a twenty-pound turkey as the centerpiece of the Thanksgiving meal have only been compounded by the inexplicable tradition of having every member of the family contribute a dish. Relatives who should never be allowed to set foot in a kitchen are suddenly walking through your door with some sort of vegetable casserole in which the “secret ingredient” is mayonnaise. And when cousin Betsy arrives with such a mishap in hand, one can take no comfort from thoughts of the future, for once a single person politely compliments the dish, its presence at Thanksgiving will be deemed sacrosanct. Then not even the death of cousin Betsy can save you from it, because as soon as she’s in the grave, her daughter will proudly pick up the baton. Served at an inconvenient hour, prepared by such an army of chefs that half the dishes are overcooked, half are undercooked,”
― Amor Towles, Table for Two

“Dismissed!” shouted Irina that night in their little apartment. “How does one get fired from Communism!”
― Amor Towles, Table for Two

“No, thought Eve, one can’t count on the sands of the desert or the winds of the Santa Ana to undo the works of the single-minded. For the world to have any sense of justice, a team of artisans had to come forward with their hammers and paintbrushes and pumice stones in order to patiently unmake the palaces of the proud.”
― Amor Towles, Table for Two

“The road along which a young man discovers what he is capable of is no midwestern interstate. It has no uninterrupted views to the horizon, no painted white lines, no brightly lit signs indicating the distance to one’s destination. Rather, it is a narrow and winding byway crowded with undergrowth and overhung with branches.”
― Amor Towles, Table for Two

“Say what you will about classical music, one thing it has going for it is that it lets your mind wander. Rock bands, blues bands—and yes, salsa bands too—they’re all intent on securing your undivided attention. That’s what the drums and amplifiers are there for. But classical musicians seem more willing to let you settle down, settle in, and follow your thoughts wheresoever they might lead you.”
― Amor Towles, Table for Two

“Oh, how we applauded. First in our chairs, and then on our feet. For we were not simply applauding this virtuoso, or the composition, or Bach. We were applauding one another. Applauding the joy which we had shared and which had become the fuller through the sharing.”
― Amor Towles, Table for Two

“It’s like my momma says: the more channels they’ve got on TV, the less people know.”
― Amor Towles, Table for Two

“Times of upheaval throw off orphans like sparks.”
― Amor Towles, Table for Two

“Dressed in a navy skirt suit she looked like she was two years out of law school, working in a large firm with every expectation of making junior partner in three years. That may seem like a lot to surmise from fifty feet, but when you work in D.C., spotting ambitious young lawyers is like spotting aspiring actresses in Hollywood.”
― Amor Towles, Table For Two

“I have lived under these circumstances for nine years, my friend. That is a long time to give one’s life over to resentment.”
― Amor Towles, Table For Two

“And though Timothy’s apartment was in the neighborhood, and no one was in danger, Lieutenant McCusker instructed Detective Dawson to sound the siren, which in turn blared with such a sense of purpose that even from five blocks away it could be heard in an eighth-floor apartment.

Oh, Timothy.

At long last, here comes your experience.

From The Ballad of Timothy Touchett (Page 74)
In Table for Two by Amor Towles”
― Amor Towles, Table for Two

“We all have our flaws. Some large and some small. Some that come and go, others that persist. I, for one, don’t remember birthdays. I’m not always welcoming to perfectly nice people whom I’m meeting for the first time. When inconvenienced, even slightly, I can’t resist the temptation to let the person who’s inconvenienced me know that I’ve been inconvenienced. And I tend to allow my priorities to overshadow the priorities of others, even of those I love. Perhaps, especially of those I love. As I stood there in the customer service line thinking of all that had just transpired, what I found myself hoping, what I found myself almost praying for, was that despite all my flaws, when the time came, as it surely would, my wife would be willing to fight for me as hard as Jennifer had fought for her husband. My wife, her name is Ellen.”
― Amor Towles, Table for Two

“Peggy stared at Nell for a moment to make sure she was understood.”
― Amor Towles, Table for Two

“We all have our flaws. Some large and some small. Some that come and go, others that persist. I, for one, don’t remember birthdays. I’m not always welcoming to perfectly nice people whom I’m meeting for the first time. When inconvenienced, even slightly, I can’t resist the temptation to let the person who’s inconvenienced me know that I’ve been inconvenienced. And I tend to allow my priorities to overshadow the priorities of others, even of those I love. Perhaps, especially of those I love.”
― Amor Towles, Table for Two

“She was quiet the way a heated skillet is quiet—in the moments before you drop the fat.”
― Amor Towles, Table for Two

“At each crossing, faced with the decision of whether to go left, right, or straight ahead, the young man may rely upon the advice he has been given as a child, or the sum of his experiences, or the flip of a coin. But of all the forces that are likely to influence him as he proceeds from one fork to the next, there are few more powerful than the moderate increase in income.”
― Amor Towles, Table for Two

“New”
― Amor Towles, Table for Two

“Are there elements of stardom that I miss? Why, there are elements of boarding school that I miss. There are elements of my most catastrophic romances that I miss. So let us agree that missing is not at the heart of the matter.”
― Amor Towles, Table for Two

“The personality of a man always poses the biggest obstacle to his own education, thought Charlie. He’s either too proud, too stubborn, or too timid to submit to the process of discovery.”
― Amor Towles, Table for Two

“Bach’s Suites for Cello (in G Major).”
― Amor Towles, Table for Two

“Well he knew that in this country, in this life, we fashion ourselves. We pick our spot and our companions and how we'll earn our keep, and that's how we go about the fashioning. Through the where of it, and the who, and the how. But it that is how we fashion ourselves, then surely it follows that with the loss of each of these elements comes the winnowing away. The burying of one's spouse, the retirement from the job, the moving from one's home where one has lived for twenty-two years - this is the undoing, the unmaking. It is through this process that time and intent reclaim the solitary soul for its grander purpose.”
― Amor Towles, Table for Two

“But of all the forces that are likely to influence him as he proceeds from one fork to the next, there are few more powerful than the moderate increase in income.”
― Amor Towles, Table for Two

“The personality of a man always poses the biggest obstacle to his own education, thought Charlie. He's either too proud, too stubborn, or too timid to submit to the process of discovery. Many of life's lessons come though trial or tribulation, and the cost of those lessons shouldn't be taken lightly. But at least half of what a man hasn't learned in his lifetime he could have learned with ease. This is one of the insights that comes with age- when one understand the nature of discovery but no longer has the time or energy to submit to its splendors. Thus, we are doomed to end our days in an ignorance largely of our own making. p331”
― Amor Towles, Table for Two

“But nothing is ever quite as simple as it seems. At least not if you’re overeducated, overpaid, and living in New York.”
― Amor Towles, Table for Two