“Lincoln told a family friend that his father taught him to work, but never learned him to love it.”

“Literature offered a safe circumscribed outlet for sadness.”

“God produced great writing, a matter of first importance to a man like Lincoln, ever impressed with the nature of cause and forces.”

“A storyteller, a displaced poet, will absorb reading differently.”

“Young, healthy communities can afford to roll the dice.”

“The towering genius is not apolitical.”

“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what...”

“His pen spoke more to her than he ever did.In the war of words, some are unwritten and some are unspoken.”

“How might I get over this? How would I be able to overlook the way he used to be with me? How could I overlook that his fingers touched my indiscernible soul before it twisted my nipples? How might...”

“A true philosopher must never give up.”

“...these sleepless nights, when oddly enough my concentration was high, fueled perhaps by the effort to ignore the all-engrossing threat of bombs and rockets.”

“Never, never, never give in!”

“It is a disaster that wisdom forbids you to be satisfied with yourself and always sends you away dissatisfied and fearful, whereas stubbornness and foolhardiness fill their hosts with joy and assur...”

“Annie Taliaferro had that hammerhead look about her, like a breachy range cow, or a bunch-quitting steer.”