“Let's not get ahead of ourselvesThere's no need for rainIt's our own paradeLet's not be afraid of our reflectionsIt's not only you you're looking at now”

“Our dearest one. Fear nothing of the forest. There is no danger in solitude. We have no need of our brothers. Let us forget their good and our evil, let us forget all things save that we are together and that there is joy as a bond between us. Give us your hand. Look ahead. It is our own world, Golden One, a strange, unknown world, but our own.”

“Can we not appreciate that our very business in life is not to get ahead of others, but to get ahead of ourselves? To break our own records, to outstrip our yesterdays by our todays, to bear our trials more beautifully than we ever dreamed we could, to give as we have never given, to do our work with more force and a finer finish than ever—this is the true idea: to get ahead of ourselves.”

“Our business in life is not to get ahead of other people, but to get ahead of ourselves.”

“The world is exactly the same as it was before, except that Americans now realize that they are a part of it. People get blown up every day, but not until Americans started getting blown up within our own borders by people who aren't Americans did it become real to us. The world has not changed, but our attention has been called to it. We are looking directly at the sun now, and it is blinding us. We need the same books we always have; we need our friends and hobbies and meaningful work; and we need them quick, to provide the dark glasses that will let us watch the eclipse, and respond to it usefully, and not go mad.”

“Well, fallen angel. Now you're quite ruined," she said, reverting to the formal you. "No, aren't you afraid? Well, goodbye! You'll get back on your own, right?”