Conflict is the very essence of life.

Every writer knows the terror of an unexpected success. How to carry on? How to repeat it?

Politics is still the man's game. The women are allowed to do the chores, the dirty work, and now and then--but only occasionally--one is present at some secret conference or other. But it's not the rule. They can go out and get the vote, if they can and will; they can collect money, they can be grateful for being permitted to work. But that is all.

Men were not equal in the effort they made, nor did equal efforts bring equal result. ... Equality of opportunity, yes. Equality of effort and result, no.

... 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.

That is the tragedy of growing old, Chris. You don't leave the world. It leaves you.

I began to feel that if religion was either an illusion or a revelation, it was simpler to accept it as an illusion.