A cowboy is a hired hand on the middle of a horse contemplating the hind end of a cow.

Mozart, striving for perfection, wrote the same symphony forty-one times. In his case, it worked. He wrote a perfect symphony.

Alaska's chief attractions are: (a) its small and insignificant human population, thanks to the miserable climate; and (b) its large and magnificent wildlife population, thanks to (a). Both of these attractions are being rapidly diminished, however, by (c) the Law of Growth and Space-Age Sleaze.

A man's duty? To be ready -- with rifle or rood -- to defend his home when the showdown comes.

This world may be only illusion -- but it's the only illusion we've got.

Belief in God? An afterlife? I believe in rock: this apodictic rock beneath my feet.

Each thing in its way, when true to its own character, is equally beautiful. (p 41)