How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"That there are two kinds of people--our kind, who live straight from the middle of their heads, and the other kind who can't, because their heads have no middle? They can't say 'I.' They AREN'T in fact, and so they're supermen. Pierpont Morgan has never said 'I' in his life." (27.3)
Helen, lecturing at Leonard, rails against the Wilcoxes and everything they represent – that is to say, a mode of life that's focused on the exterior (on money, on business, on politics) rather than the interior life, or the "I," as she calls it. The Pierpont Morgan she references here was a famous American financier of the nineteenth century.
Quote #8
"If we lived for ever what you say would be true. But we have to die, we have to leave life presently. Injustice and greed would be the real thing if we lived for ever. As it is, we must hold to other things, because Death is coming. I love Death--not morbidly, but because He explains. He shows me the emptiness of Money. Death and Money are the eternal foes. Not Death and Life. Never mind what lies behind Death, Mr. Bast, but be sure that the poet and the musician and the tramp will be happier in it than the man who has never learnt to say, 'I am I.'" (27.19)
Helen's refusal to believe in the power of money (despite the fact that she herself relies upon it for everything) shows just how naïve and idealistic she still is – she has the luxury to believe in the poetic vision that the artist and humane man will be happier in the long run because they truly live for themselves.
Quote #9
"So never give in," continued the girl, and restated again and again the vague yet convincing plea that the Invisible lodges against the Visible. Her excitement grew as she tried to cut the rope that fastened Leonard to the earth. Woven of bitter experience, it resisted her. (27.23)
Helen's attempt to break Leonard free from the shackles of his worldly concerns is bound to fail – after all, he's been shown nothing but rough treatment from the world, while she's been coddled all her life. How can she, with all her innocent, well-meaning idealism, possibly undo everything he's experienced?