“American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it.”

“That which is really beautiful has no need of anything; not more than law, not more than truth, not more than benevolence or modesty.”

“But they lived those extraordinary lives that can never be lived again. And in the living of them, they gave me a history that is more profound, more beautiful, more powerful, more passionate, and ultimately more useful, than the best damn history book I ever read.”

“While human ingenuity may devise various inventions to the same ends, it will never devise anything more beautiful, nor more simple, nor more to the purpose than nature does, because in her inventions nothing is lacking and nothing is superfluous.”

“Has anyone ever in recorded history kept a box of Pepperidge Farm cookies for longer than three days?”

“The old world had been consumed with the search for More Stuff. Now there was more stuff than anyone could ever use, and little or none of anything else.”