American individualism, much celebrated and cherished, has developed without its essential corrective, which is belonging.

History is not the proper midden for digging up novelties. Perhaps that is one reason why a nation bent on novelty ignores it.

In a way, it is beautiful to be young and hard up. With the right wife, and I had her, deprivation became a game.

[I]t is dangerous for a bride to be apologetic about her husband.

We need wilderness preserved-as much of it as is still left, and as many kinds-because it was the challenge against which our character as a people was formed.

Water is the true wealth in a dry land.

Do we respond only to people who seem to find us interesting?