“It is not good to want a thing too much. It sometimes drives the luck away. You must want it just enough, and you must be very tactful with Gods or the gods.”

“I am grieved at what you tell me," said Pellinore, "but I believe that God can change destiny. I must have faith in that.”

“What branch do you want to go in?” “I don’ give a god-damn,” said Pilon jauntily. “I guess we need men like you in the infantry.” And Pilon was written so. He turned then to Big Joe, and the Portagee was getting sober. “Where do you want to go?” “I want to go home,” Big Joe said miserably. The sergeant put him in the infantry too.”

“Ah, the prayers of the millions, how they must fight and destroy each other on their way to the throne of God.”

“Intentions, good or bad, are not enough. There's luck or fate or something else that takes over...”

“You're jest one person, an' they's a lot of other folks. You git to your proper place. I knowed people built theirself up with sin till they figgered they was big mean shucks in the sight a the Lord. You ain't big enough or mean enough to worry God much.”

“When we get these thruways across the whole country, as we will and must, it will be possible to drive from New York to California without seeing a single thing.”