“Whether they will or not, Americans must now begin to look outward. The growing production of the country demands it.”

“The surer of himself an admiral is, the finer the tactical development of his fleet, the better his captains, the more reluctant must he necessarily be to enter into a melee with equal forces, in which all these advantages will be thrown away, chance reign supreme, and his fleet be place on terms of equality with an assemblage of ships which have never before acted together.”

“Organized force alone enables the quiet and the weak to go about their business and to sleep securely in their beds, safe from the violent without or within.”

“The study of history lies at the foundation of all sound military conclusions and practice.”

“Trust me, I write fiction.”

“The universe is always speaking to us. ... Sending us little messages, causing coincidences and serendipities, reminding us to stop, to look around, to believe in something else, something more.”

“Let me be one of the upward and outward lookers, not one of the downward and inward lookers.”