My father was in the coal business in West Virginia. Both dad and mother were, however, originally from Massachusetts; New England, to them, meant the place to go if you really wanted an education.

You have to do what you think is the right thing, but just make sure it’s the right thing in the long run, and not just for the moment.

Sarcasm... the protest of those who are weak.

As I said, this was my sarcastic summer. It was only long after that I recognized sarcasm as the protest of people who are weak.

This was the tree, and it seemed to me standing there to resemble those men, the giants of your childhood, whom you encounter years later and find that they are not merely smaller in relation to your growth, but they are absolutely smaller, shrunken by age. In this double demotion the old giants have become pygmies while you were looking the other way.

It seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart

Everyone has a moment in history which belongs particularly to him.