It would be absurd if we did not understand both angels and devils, since we invented them.

It was too nerve-wracking, a shocking spectacle, like seeing an old, calm friend go insane.

I know a little bit about a great many things and not enough about any one to make a living in these times.

Eventlessness has no posts to drape duration on. From nothing to nothing is no time at all.

Do you think it's funny to be so serious when I'm not even out of high school?' she asked. 'I don't see how it could be any other way,' said Lee. 'Laughter comes later, like wisdom teeth, and laughter at yourself comes last of all in a mad race with death, and sometimes it isn't in time.

He never forgot anything but he never bothered to arrange his memories. -Hazel, Cannery Row

We may be thankful that frightened civil authorities ... have not managed to eradicate from the country the tradition of the possession and use of firearms, that profound and almost instinctive tradition of Americans. Luckily for us, our tradition of bearing arms has not gone from the country, the tradition is so deep and so dear to us that it is one of the most treasured parts of the Bill of Rights - the right of all Americans to bear arms, with the implication that they will know how to use them.