What depresses me is the inevitable way the second rate forges ahead and the deserving is left behind.

There is only one force stronger than selfishness, and that is stupidity.

marriage is mostly puttin' up with things, I reckon, when it ain't makin' believe.

In her single person she managed to produce the effect of a majority.

idealism, that gaudy coloring matter of passion, fades when it is brought beneath the trenchant white light of knowledge. Ideals, like mountains, are best at a distance.

... beauty, like ecstasy, has always been hostile to the commonplace. And the commonplace, under its popular label of the normal,has been the supreme authority for Homo sapiens since the days when he was probably arboreal.

The truth is I've got the land on my back, an' it's drivin' me. Land is a hard driver.