... Washington was not only an important capital. It was a city of fear. Below that glittering and delightful surface there is another story, that of underpaid Government clerks, men and women holding desperately to work that some political pull may at any moment take from them. A city of men in office and clutching that office, and a city of struggle which the country never suspects.

[To her frequently needed plumber:] How would you like to be adopted? I'm sure it would be cheaper.

I hate those men who would send into war youth to fight and die for them; the pride and cowardice of those old men, making their wars that boys must die.

Old men make wars that young men may die.

All houses in which men have lived and suffered and died are haunted houses.

Enemies are an indication of character.

It takes a good many years and some pretty hard knocks to make people tolerant.