A Gentleman in Moscow

p.12. "A king fortifies himself with a castle.." observed the Count, "a gentleman with a desk."

 

p.18. adversity presents itself in many forms; and that if a man does not master his circumstances then he is bound to be mastered by them.

 

p.20. But imagining what might happen if one's circumstances were different was the only sure route to madness. 

 

p.80. Fate would not have the reputation it has if it simply did what it seemed it would do. 

 

p.80. While the splendors that elude us in youth are likely to receive our casual contempt in adolescence and our measured consideration in adulthood, they forever hold us in their thrall. 

 

pp.120-121. After all, what can a first impression tell us about someone we've just met for a minute in the lobby of a hotel? For that matter, what can a first impression tell us about anyone? Why, no more than a chord can tell us about Beethoven, or a brushstroke about Botticelli. By their very nature, human beings are so capricious, so complex, so delightfully contradictory, that they deservve not only our consideration, but our reconsideration-and our unwavering determination to withhold our opinion until we have engaged with them in every possible setting at every possible hour. 

 

p.339. the span of time between the placing of an order and the arrival of appetizers is one of the most perilous in all human interaction. What young lovers have not found themselves at this juncture in a silience so sudden, so seemingly insurmountable that it threatens to cast doubt upon their chemistry as a couple? What husband and wife have not found themselves suddenly unnerved by the fear that they might not ever have something urgent, impassioned, or surprising to say to each other again? So it is with good reason that most of us meet this dangerous interstice with a sense of foreboding.