we know by the odour that occasionally we are visited by skunks, which are not poetic but very beautiful.

I know men and women. An honourable man is an honourable man, and a liar is a liar; both are born and not made. One cannot change to the other any more than that same old leopard can change its spots. After a man tells a woman the first untruth of that sort, the others come piling thick, fast, and mountain high.

the occasional cries of a lost loon, strayed from its flock in northern migration, fill the swamp with sounds of wailing.

It really seems as if failure and hardship make more of a human being of folks than success.

We never know the timber of a man's soul until something cuts into him deeply and brings the grain out strong. You've the making of a mighty fine piece of furniture.

Sometimes it seems to me that the more we get hurt in this world the decenter it makes us.

Do you know that being a stranger is the hardest thing that can happen to any one in all this world?