A good writer preserves an air of freedom in his prose, so that the reader won't know how a story will end - even if he's reading a history book.

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

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

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.

I've never forgotten for long at a time that living is struggle. I know that every good and excellent thing in the world stands moment by moment on the razor-edge of danger and must be fought for - whether it's a field, or a home, or a country.

I didn't marry you because you were perfect. I didn't even marry you because I loved you. I married you because you gave me a promise. That promise made up for your faults. And the promise I gave you made up for mine. Two imperfect people got married and it was the promise that made the marriage. And when our children were growing up, it wasn't a house that protected them; and it wasn't our love that protected them--it was that promise.

I not only bow to the inevitable; I am fortified by it.