The comic spirit is given to us in order that we may analyze, weigh, and clarify things in us which nettle us, or which we are outgrowing, or trying to reshape

I rose by sheer military ability to the rank of corporal.

Throughout the hours of the night, though there had been few to hear it, the whole sky had been loud with the singing of these constellations.

How terrifying and glorious the role of man if, indeed, without guidance and without consolation he must create from his own vitals the meaning for his existence and write the rules whereby he lives.

Good-by, Good-by, world. Good-by, Grover's Corners... Mama and Papa. Good-by to clocks ticking... and Mama's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new-ironed dresses and hot baths...and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you.

Only it seems to me that once in your life before you die you ought to see a country where they don't talk in English and don't even want to.

A convention is an agreed-upon falsehood, a permitted lie.