Ancestry is most important to those who have done nothing themselves.

No memory is ever alone; it's at the end of a trail of memories, a dozen trails that each have their own associations.

After a few days, I mused, I would have no trouble. Whoever heard of a revolution of fat men?

Man needs so little... yet he begins wanting so much.

Without books we should very likely be a still-primitive people living in the shadow of traditions that faded with years until only a blur remained, and different memories would remember the past in different ways. A parent or a teacher has only his lifetime; a good book can teach forever.Without books we should very likely be a still-primitive people living in the shadow of traditions that faded with years until only a blur remained, and different memories would remember the past in different ways. A parent or a teacher has only his lifetime; a good book can teach forever.

The thieves and killers are goin' to have guns, so if the honest men don't have 'em they just make it easier for the vicious.

Out here you better have a gun, and a gun in the wagon ain't good for nothin'. I believe what the old Quaker said, 'Trust in the Lord, but keep your powder dry.