Vincent

“It’s not against Lottery regulations to lose, obviously - somebody’s got to - but it’s against the Rules to be seen to lose. It’s against the Rules to be seen to win. It’s not just that you break the Rules by sitting there. It’s that you put everyone else in the position of ostentatious Rulebreakers, manoeuvred into flashing their luck just by walking to work.”
― Helen DeWitt, Your Name Here

“The mere fact of her sufferings and adventures made her a priceless possession.”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett

“Immature citizens in several sizes were massed before a large factorylike structure where advanced techniques transformed them into true-thinking right-acting members of the three social classes, lower, middle, and upper middle.”
― Donald Barthelme

“The cheers died away in the soft grey air. He was alone. He was happy and free; but he would not be anyway proud with Father Dolan. He would be very quiet and obedient: and he wished that he could do something kind for him to show him that he was not proud.”
― James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man