“The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease, and death. To be loyal to rags, to shout for rags, to die for rags--that is a loyalty of unreason, it is pure animal; it belongs to monarchy, was invented by monarchy; let monarchy keep it.”

“My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to its institutions or its officeholders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease, and death.”

“I'll be damned if death wears my sadness as glad rags. ”

“Adulthood is accretive by nature, a thing which arrives in ragged stages and uneven overlaps.”

“From recovery to rags and rags to recovery symbolizes art - a perfect compilation of human imperfections.”

“People don’t die because of loyalty.”They don’t?” She smiled. “Religion? Government? Are we not loyal to such things, sometimes to the death?”Eddie shrugged.Better,” she said, “to be loyal to one another.”