Any piece of furniture, I don't care how beautiful it is, has got to be lived with, and kicked about, and rubbed down, and mistreated by servants, and repolished, and knocked around and dusted and sat on or slept in or eaten off of before it develops its real character ... A good deal like human beings.

Big doesn't necessarily mean better. Sunflowers aren't better than violets.

One can summon courage and fortitude to face tragedy; irritations and frustrations are a cloud of mosquitoes that nip and sting and drive one frantic.

don't you hate people who say they're not complaining and then complain?

No one in the United States has the right to own millions of acres of American land, I don't care how they came by it.

Living the past is a dull and lonely business; looking back strains the neck muscles, causing you to bump into people not going your way.

Men often marry their mothers.