There is a time of life somewhere between the sullen fugues of adolescence and the retrenchments of middle age when human nature becomes so absolutely absorbing one wants to be in the city constantly, even at the height of summer.

No birdcall is the musical equal of a clarinet blown with panache.

Men often compete with one another until the day they die. Comradeship consists of rubbing shoulders jocularly with a competitor.

Men greet each other with a sock on the arm, women with a hug, and the hug wears better in the long run.

Black bears, though, are not fearsome. I encountered one on the road to my house in Vermont, alone at night. I picked up two stones just in case, but I wasn't afraid of him. I felt a hunter's exhilaration and a brotherly feeling.

In order to really enjoy a dog, one doesn't merely try to train him to be semi-human. The point of it is to open oneself to the possibility of becoming partly a dog.

Many people have believed that they were Chosen, but none more baldly than the Texans.