“Luck is the dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.”

“The quality of an individual is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.”

“The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.”

“He balanced in space with the book in his sweating cold fingers.”

“Sneezes pent but set like traps, the boys crouched, stood, lay sweating a cool and constant brine.”

“Lilacs on a bush are better than orchids. And dandelions and devil grass are better! Why? Because they bend you over and turn you away from all the people in the town for a little while and sweat you and get you down where you remember you got a nose again. And when you’re all to yourself that way, you’re really proud of yourself for a little while; you get to thinking things through, alone. Gardening is the handiest excuse for being a philosopher. Nobody guesses, nobody accuses, nobody knows, but there you are, Plato in the peonies, Socrates force-growing his own hemlock. A man toting a sack of blood manure across his lawn is kin to Atlas letting the world spin easy on his shoulder.”

“The more pores, the more truthfully recorded details of life per square inch you can get on a sheet of paper, the more 'literary' you are... The good writers touch life often.”