"it was as if there was something abstract in his expression-it made him colourless. as if a living human face had become an embodiment of a principle, the image of an idea."

"how well she does everything! she reads not as if reading were the highest human activity, but as if it were the simplest possible thing, a thing which even animals could do. as if she were carrying water from a well or peeling potatoes."

-Dr. Zhivago