“What gunpowder did for war, the printing press has done for the mind.”

“How prudently most men creep into nameless graves, while now and then one or two forget themselves into immortality.”

“When I want to find the vanguard of the people I look to the uneasy dreams of an aristocracy and find what they dread most.”

“Seldom ever was any knowledge given to keep, but to impart; the grace of this rich jewel is lost in concealment.”

“Physical bravery is an animal instinct moral bravery is much higher and truer courage. ”

“To hear some men talk of the government, you would suppose that Congress was the law of gravitation, and kept the planets in their places.”

“Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself.”

“One morning as I closed the cyclone-fence gate / to begin a slow drift / down to the cookhouse on foot / (because my truck wheels were glued / in deep mud once again), / I walked straight into / th...”

“It was a morning like other mornings and yet perfect among mornings.”

“There are many things that make a man irritable when he arrives home from work in the evening and a sensible wife will usually notice the storm-signals and will leave him alone until he simmers down.”

“Oblivion, she thought. That was the world she lived in. It was what they should name some countries, towns, and places.”

“A lot of men wouldn't like being called a romantic. It's not macho enough.'Quite often men are fools.”

“We speak the truth because we live in truth.”

“There are occasions when it pays better to fight and be beaten than not to fight at all.”

“But for what purpose was the earth formed?" asked Candide. "To drive us mad," replied Martin.”