“The more the drive toward life is thwarted, the stronger is the drive toward destruction; the more life is realized, the less is the strength of destructiveness. Destructiveness is the outcome of unlived life.”

“We were careless and wild, and I suppose we could be thought of as a sign of the life the war was being fought to preserve. Anyway, they were more indulgent toward us than at any other time; they snapped at the heels of the seniors, driving and molding and arming them for the war. They noticed our games tolerantly. We reminded them of what peace was like, of lives which were not bound up with destruction.”

“Persistence is the devious alter-ego of perseverance. Perseverance provides us the stamina to realize our visions, whereas persistence drives us into self-destruction.”

“Creation and destruction are the two ends of the same moment. And everything between the creation and the next destruction is the journey of life.”

“Trust Emmett to find the joke in the destruction of my life.”

“others devoted to life will surely find that between the creation of life and the destruction of the destroyers there is no difference but a necessary, indispensable connection; that nothing good can be created that does not of its very nature push forward the destruction of the destroyers.”