There Is Only One Force Stronger Than

Nations Decay From Within More Often Than They Surrender To Outward Assault.

My First Reading Of Tolstoy Affected Me As A Revelation From Heaven, As The Trumpet Of The Judgment. What He Made Me Feel Was Notthe Desire To Imitate, But The Conviction That Imitation Was Futile.

Evidently, Whatever Else Marriage Might Prevent, It Was Not A Remedy For Isolation Of Spirit.

I Have Watchedmany Literary Fashions Shoot Up And Blossom, And Then Fade And Drop.... Yet With The Many That I Have Seen Comeand Go, I Have Never Yet Encountered A Mode Of Thinking That Regarded Itself As Simply A Changing Fashion, And Not As An Infallible Approach To The Right Culture.

As Far Back As I Remember, Long Before I Could Write, I Had Played At Making Stories. But Not Until I Was Seven Or More, Did I Begin To Pray Every Night, "o God, Let Me Write Books! Please, God, Let Me Write Books!"