“It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him.”

“But 'Thou mayest!'! Why, that makes a man great, that gives him stature with the gods, for in his weakness and his filth and his murder of his brother he has still the great choice. He can choose his course and fight it through and win”

“There is a great deal to be seen in the tilt of a hat on a man.”

“There you have the difference between greatness and mediocrity. It's not an uncommon disease. But it's nice for a mediocre man to know that greatness must be the loneliest state in the world.”

“Our Father who art in nature...must have a great and overwhelming love for no-goods and blots-on-the-town and bums, and Mack and the boys.”

“Time is more complex near the sea than in any other place, for in addition to the circling of the sun and the turning of the seasons, the waves beat out the passage of time on the rocks and the tides rise and fall as a great clepsydra.”

“It's one of the great fallacies, it seems to me, that time gives much of anything but years and sadness to man.”