Travel at its truest is thus an ironic experience, and the best travellers . . . seem to be those able to hold two or three inconsistent ideas in their minds at the same time, or able to regard themselves as at once serious persons and clowns.

Wars damage the civilian society as much as they damage the enemy. Soldiers never get over it.

Chickenshit refers to behavior that makes military life worse than it need be: petty harassment of the weak by the strong; open scrimmage for power and authority and prestige; sadism thinly disguised as necessary discipline; a constant 'paying off of old scores'; and insistence on the letter rather than the spirit of ordinances.

Anybody who notices unpleasant facts in the have-a-nice-day world we live in is going to be designated a curmudgeon.

The wise traveler learns not to repeat successes but tries new places all the time.

And the ideal travel writer is consumed not just with a will to know. He is also moved by a powerful will to teach.

If we do not redefine manhood, war is inevitable.