The coconut trees, lithe and graceful, crowd the beach like a minuet of slender elderly virgins adopting flippant poses.

The colors of the underwater rock [are] as pale and delicate as those in the wardrobe of an 18th-century marchioness.

I wondered vaguely if this was when it would end, whether I would pull up tonight's darkness like a quilt and be dead and at peace evermore.

An Edwardian lady in full dress was a wonder to behold, and her preparations for viewing were awesome.

Men do not fight for flag or country, for the Marine Corps or glory or any other abstraction. They fight for one another. [And] if you came through this ordeal, you would age with dignity.

And if you came through this ordeal, you would age with dignity.