“I make my battle plans from the spirit of my sleeping soldiers”

“My principle anguish and the source of all my joys and sorrows from my youth onward has been the incessant, merciless battle between the spirit and the flesh.”

“O God of battles, steel my soldier's hearts.Possess them not with fear. Take from them nowThe sense of reckoning ere th' opposed numbersPluck their hearts from them.”

“From my spirit's gray defeat, From my pulse's flagging beat, From my hopes that turned to sand Sifting through my close-clenched hand, From my own fault's slavery, If I can sing, I still am free.For with my singing I can make A refuge for my spirit's sake, A house of shining words, to be My fragile immortality.”

“Now turn around and go to sleep. I'm warning you that I plan to sleep with you in my arms all night long.”

“This was not the state of mind I was accustomed to, at the outset of an expedition. But one does not fight the battles he wishes to fight; he fights the battles that find him. I would do my best to ignore my foul mood and physical discomfort, and plunge ahead as I had planned.”