I have been contending all my life, and always with God.

If we would leave parties to the politicians, and would vote not for the party, not even for men, but for the city, and the State, and the nation, we should rule parties, and cities, and States, and nation.

I am really puzzled to understand myself.

My father made with me one serious mistake which I see parents about me making. He got himself somehow into the awkward position of an authority; I thought he knew and was right on everything - for a while.

My father seemed always to know not only what I was doing, but what I was being.

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