“But whether he was happy or not was hard to say. Probably he was neither, just as a plant is neither.”

“Faye burst into the room. She ignored Homer and went straight to the couch.Now what in hell's the matter?" she exploded.Darling daughter," he said. "I have been badly taken, and this gentleman has been kind enough to let me rest for a moment."He had a fit or something," Homer said.She whirled around on him so suddenly that he was startled.How do you do?" she said, holding her hand forward and high up.He shook it gingerly.Charmed," she said, when he mumbled something.She spun around once more.It's my heart," Harry said. "I can't stand it.”

“But it is a strange experience, to a man of pride and sensibility, to know that his interests are within the control of individuals who neither love nor understand him”

“Hardness," I was learning, was the supreme virtue among recon Marines. The greatest compliment one could pay to another was to say he was hard. Hardness wasn't toughness, nor was it courage, although both were part of it. Hardness was the ability to face an overwhelming situation with aplomb, smile calmly at it, and then triumph through sheer professional pride.”

“Why are poets so apt to choose their mates, not for any similarity of poetic endowment, but for qualities which might make the happiness of the rudest handicraftsman as well as that of the ideal craftsman of the spirit? Because, probably, at his highest elevation, the poet needs no human intercourse; but he finds it dreary to descend, and be a stranger.”

“Every individual has a place to fill in the world and is important in some respect, whether he chooses to be so or not.”

“All brave men love; for he only is brave who has affections to fight for, whether in the daily battle of life, or in physical contests.”