there was nothing in the whole world so dreadful as the power of riches wrongly used.

To my way of thinking and working, the greatest service a piece of fiction can do any reader is to leave him with a higher ideal of life than he had when he began. If in one small degree it shows him where he can be...gentler, saner, cleaner, kindlier...it is a wonder-working book. If it opens his eyes to one beauty in nature he never saw for himself and leads him one step toward the God of the Universe, it is a beneficial book.

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

What was money that it should make such dreadful things of men and women?

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

Money was their God; work their religion.

To my way of thinking and working, the greatest service a piece of fiction can do any reader is to force him to lay it down with a higher ideal of life than he had when he took it up.