"I felt curiously aloof from my own self. No temptations maddened me. The plump, glossy little Eskimo girls with their fish smell, hideous raven hair and guinea pig faces, evoked less desire in me than Dr. Johnson had. Nymphets do not occur in polar regions" - Lolita (where else?)

"After the 1850s, thanks in part to Franklin's influence, American became the land of ingenuity" - Maria Kalman, in her excellent And In Pursuit of Happiness

"The proper use of entertainment and education has become the most fundamental social enterprise" - Tyler Cowen in Create Your Own Economy