I'm fascinated by Comte's clear-eyed analysis of what was wrong with modern society, which is that you've got industrial capitalism on one side and romantic love on the other. Those, along with non-instrumental art, are supposed to get you through the day?

If you are pro love, you have to be a little bit disloyal to the romantic feelings that propel you in the early days.

A person cannot be at once a libertine and a married Romantic, however compelling both paradigms might be.

There is a danger of developing a blanket distaste for modern life which could have its attractions but lack the all-important images to help us identify them.

When we bumped into Belle, the story is very romantic. She was very involved in society. Belle — the name was right. It was just one of those lightning bolt deals.

...it seemed a part of her life, to step from the ancient to the modern, back and forth. She felt rather sorry for those who knew only one and not the other. It was better, she thought, to be able to select from the whole menu of human achievements than to be bound within one narrow range.