“we all get humiliated at some point or another during our lives. the trick is not to let it make you resentful or defeatist.”

“Whether we like it or not, we all come from someplace. And at some point in our lives, we have to make peace with that place.”

“The last best hope of life is that at some point during living it, all that you did wrong will suddenly teach you to do right.”

“Vanity plays lurid tricks with our memory, and the truth of every passion wants some pretence to make it live.”

“But my point, Mattie—if I have a point, Mattie—is this: kind of try to live up to the best that’s in you. If you give your word to people, let them know that they’re getting the word of the best. If you room with some dopey girl at college, try to make her less dopey. If you’re standing outside a theater and some old gal comes up selling gum, give her a buck if you’ve got a buck — but only if you can do it without patronizing her. That’s the trick, baby.' -Last Day of the Last Furlough”

“I used to get a big kick out of saving people’s lives. Now I wonder what the hell’s the point, since they all have to die anyway.”“Oh, there’s a point, all right,” Dunbar assured him.“Is there? What’s the point?”“The point is to keep them from dying as long as you can.”“Yeah, but what’s the point, since they all have to die anyway?”“The trick is not to think about that.”“Never mind the trick. What the hell’s the point?”Dunbar pondered in silence for a few moments. “Who the hell knows.”