there's no such thing as luck. Nothing ever just happens to anybody. ... nothing can really happen to a person till he lets it happen.

A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary.

Some people think that doctors and nurses can put scrambled eggs back into the shell.

No Vermont town ever let anybody in it starve.

The actions of a human being, even of fifteen months of age, may not be without significance to a sympathetic eye.

Freedom is not worth fighting for if it means no more than license for everyone to get as much as he can for himself.

What a fearfully distracting, perplexing and heart-searching business it is to live.

One of the many things nobody ever tells you about middle age is that it's such a nice change from being young.

Libraries are the vessels in which the seed corn for the future is stored.

Vermont is the only place in America where I ever hear thrift spoken of with respect.

What's the use of inventing a better system as long as there just aren't enough folks with sense to go around?

Much smoke has been seen, and caused great fear of fire — even when no fire ensued.

Giving up is the ultimate tragedy.

The intelligence of cinema-goers should be respected.

Set boundaries and keep them. People will drown you with their need, and demonize you for not filling their emptiness.

Nobody wants to open a business near a Superfund site and risk being sued

Today, technology is moving faster than the research establishment.

Do you know why I left America, Lidewij? So that I would never again have to encounter Americans." "But you are an American." "Incurably so, it seems.

There is no such thing as failure. Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction.

Many of us knuckle-dragging brush-painters think that 'behind the times' is part of our job description. Why deny ourselves the authentic journey of a time-honoured form?

Understand the acute difference between the cost of something and the value of something.