God cannot be solemn, or he would not have blessed man with the incalculable gift of laughter.

Happiness is a direction, not a place.

And most of the failures in parent-child relationships, from my observation, begin when the child begins to acquire a mind and a will of its own, to make independent decisions and to question the omnipotence or the wisdom of the parent.

Knowledge fills a large brain; it merely inflates a small one.

Norbert Blei is a writer the way people used to be troubadours and minstrels, celebrating what he has seen and heart and felt in a deceptively simple style reminiscent of the early Sherwood Anderson. . . . Like Anderson, he is a lover, and his affection invests his writing with a singular charm.

History repeats itself, but in such cunning disguise that we never detect the resemblance until the damage is done.

Many married couples separate because they quarrel incessantly, but just as many separate because they were never honest enough or courageous enough to quarrel when they should have.