"There is no doubt that, of all the tales, the first is the most difficult for the casual reader. Not only is its nomenclature trying, but its logic and its ideas seem, at first reading, to be entirely alien." Tale 1, City, p. 9

"But the fact that they could buy a house twice as good for half as much, the fact that they could live as they wished to live, that they could develop what amounts to family estates after the best tradition set them by the wealthy of a generation ago—all these things outweighed the leaving of their homes." Tale 1, City, p. 26

"It was decided, rightly or wrongly, that progress should come first, regardless of its effect upon the people." Tale 1, City, p. 32

"Numbly, Jerome A. Webster wondered if they understood-if they understood life and death-if they understood what it meant that Nelson F. Webster lay...