It is possible to get an education at a university. It has been done; not often.

My father would invite me sweetly to come and sit on a stool at his feet, and, as I let myself trustingly down, he would gently kick the seat from under me - and laugh.

My mother would thump me sharply on the head with a thimble or a spoon if I became too noisy with the whistle when I was playing I was a steamboat captain. She had no sense of the dignity of command.

Nothing is done. Everything in the world remains to be done or done over.

One improvement I have learned from my childhood experience with my father: I do not threaten punishment in the morning. That was awful. Late into the night I would lie awake tossing and wondering what he was going to do to me. Usually he did nothing. A quiet, impressive 'talking to' was all I got.

It is our knowledge - the things we are sure of - that makes the world go wrong and keeps us from seeing and learning.

My father was slower, but he was severer than my mother, who was quick but light and irregular in discipline.