“Kufika hapa nilipofika leo nilijitolea vitu vingi na mambo mengi katika maisha yangu. Niliishi katika uhamisho wa kijamii kwa ajili ya mafanikio. Nilijitolea muda. Nilijitolea usingizi. Nilijitolea starehe. Wakati wengine wakienda baa mimi nilikuwa kazini. Wakati wengine wamelala, mimi nilikuwa macho nikifanya kazi. Wakati wengine wakiangalia vipindi pendwa vya televisheni, mimi nilikuwa nikiangalia vipindi visivyopendeka vya televisheni. Wakati wengine wana muda wa kuchezea, mimi nilikuwa nikiyaendesha maisha yangu kwa ratiba maalumu.”

“Only now that he had great swathes of time could he begin to have hobbies. This was why art was such an incalculable luxury: it sent out a message saying, “I have time to subcontract all the menial, dull chores out to others; I waste hours in idle contemplation of a piece of cloth covered in spots; I am an art lover; I am time-rich. I can mooch about in a sea of pickled sharks.”

“Contemplation is a luxury, requiring time and alternatives.”

“Luxury is best experienced not when it’s inherited but when it’s earned.”

“Luxury is the ease of a t-shirt in a very expensive dress.”

“The materialistic view of happiness of our age starkly revealed in our understanding of the word “luxury.”

“A virtuos woman is not moved by big names and flamboyance, but only men of profound wisdom and integrity move her.”

“You are happy when you are enthusiastic and action-oriented, not when you are luxury and pleasure oriented.”

“There is nothing more luxurious than eating while you read—unless it be reading while you eat. Amabel did both: they are not the same thing, as you will see if you think the matter over.”

“Every luxury must be paid for, and everything is a luxury, starting with being in this world.”