I prize the Depression, for instance, because I learned the value of things in the Depression that a way people who don't have to worry about such things never learned to prize it really, I believe.

Before the war it was always the United States *are*, after the war it was the United States is... it made us an is.

The Civil War defined us as what we are and it opened us to being what we became, good and bad things... It was the crossroads of our being, and it was a hell of a crossroads.

If you want to study writing, read Dickens. That's how to study writing, or Faulkner, or D.H. Lawrence, or John Keats. They can teach you everything you need to know about writing.

People make a grievous error thinking that a list of facts is the truth. Facts are just the bare bones out of which truth is made.

When you grow up in a totally segregated society, where everybody around you believes that segregation is proper, you have a hard time. You can't believe how much it's a part of your thinking.

A university is just a group of buildings gathered around a library.

As a Southerner I would have to say that one of the main importances of the War is that Southerners have a sense of defeat which none of the rest of the country has.

I think making mistakes and discovering them for yourself is of great value, but to have someone else to point out your mistakes is a shortcut of the process.

I abhor the idea of a perfect world. It would bore me to tears.

Longevity conquers scandal every time.

The secret to enjoying your job is to have a hobby that's even worse

You’re nasty and you’re loud, you’re mean enough for two, If I could be a cloud, I’d rain all day on you.

I love it when people lie! Lying is only man's privilege over all other organisms. Lying is what makes me a man.

If I improve just a little bit every day, I'm a happier person

The world's history is the world's judgment.

What a singular fact for an angel visitant to this earth to carry back in his note-book, that men were forbidden to expose their bodies under the severest penalties!

Hatred of humanity and love of animals make a very bad combination.

Praying without ceasing is not ritualized, nor are there even words. It is a constant state of awareness of oneness with God.

Fate leads him who follows it, and drags him who resist.

In a place where everybody thinks alike, nobody thinks very much.