But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou mayest’— that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.

What some people find in religion a writer may find in his craft...a kind of breaking through to glory.

Why don't you go on west to California? There's work there, and it never gets cold. Why, you can reach out anywhere and pick an orange. Why, there's always some kind of crop to work in. Why don't you go there?

A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.

All great and precious things are lonely.

A boy gets to be a man when a man is needed. Remember this thing. I have known boys forty years old because there was no need for a man.

Well, every little boy thinks he invented sin. Virtue we think we learn, because we are told about it. But sin is our own designing.