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.

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.

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.

North was only a direction indicated by a compass--if a man had one, that is, for otherwise there was no north or south or east or west; there was only the brooding desolation.

Take the time to get it right. There'll be gas tomorrow night

Literature exists inside the language. It's made of words.

If you've wrecked one train, you've wrecked them all.

People understand about family; people understand about being in situations where you have to be brave. People get falling in love.

That said, I have come to believe that the more committed one is to leftism, the more likely one is to become meaner.

Good planning is the foundation of success for almost any project. Start by getting clear on your goal.

Greatness starts with the replacement of hatred with polite disdain.

In the simplest sense, the key to the performance of any traditional commercial bank ... is the profitability of the loans it makes.

When words fail, wars begin. When wars finally end, we settle our disputes with words.

As to the advantages of temperance in the training of the armed forces and of its benefits to the members of the forces themselves, there can be no doubt in the world.