In youth there are always two forces fighting in people. The warm unthinking little animal struggles against the thing that reflects and remembers

The disease we all have and that we have to fight against all our lives is ... the disease of self.

What's wrong with this egotism? If a man doesn't delight in himself and the force in him and feel that he and it are wonders, how is all life to become important to him?

I am a lover and have not found my thing to love.

All good New Orleanians go to look at the Mississippi at least once a day. At night it is like creeping into a dark bedroom to look at a sleeping child--something of that sort--gives you the same warm nice feeling, I mean.

You must try to forget all you have learned,” said the old man. “You must begin to dream. From this time on you must shut your ears to the roaring of the voices.

Many people must live and die alone, even in Winesburg.