"I proceed, gentlemen, briefly to call your attention to the present state of insane persons confined within this Commonwealth, in cages, closets, cellars, stalls, pens! Chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience."

"The condition of human beings, reduced to the extremest states of degradation and misery, cannot be exhibited in softened language, or adorn a polished page."

"I attempted to explain and he attempted to understand, but the truth fell somewhere between us."

"When the ambush came, he was the one who knocked me down and threw himself on top of me, taking my share of the bullets and frags. Dying, his body twitched on top of me, and I hesitate to say it, but it was as if he were making love to me. And I guess he was, at that."

"William gave me a look that said it was too bad I was brain-damaged."

"Fortunately, he was the sort of person who, when he demanded an explanation, listened to it."

"But promises were being broken all around. Most of us in Nam were the children of the last war that was ever supposed to be fought anywhere in the world. All of the baby boys were promised that they would grow up and become successful and all of the baby girls were promised that someday their princes would come. Then along came the goddamn government and bingo, it sent the princes off to battle communism and issued them the right to hate anyone not in their unit. Then it sent them home in body bags, or with their handsome faces melted or blown away, their bodies prematurely aged with disease or terrible wounds, and their idealistic souls turned into sewers. And those were the survivors."

"I was about a foot farther down the wall when I heard a hoarse hacking and a slimy projectile slapped the back of my head. I whirled. Purdy’s camel regarded me with an expression similar to that I have seen on various churchwomen bent on wrecking one’s reputation—sanctimonious malice."

"We must draw the line somewhere. Observance of good form is necessary to the orderly completion of lessons. Orderly completion of lessons leads to the orderly growth of society."

"While it was not bloodthirsty—for human blood anyway—it didn’t discourage bloodthirsty practices: its attitude was aloof, as befitted its station, the god who couldn’t be bothered with the petty problems of its worshipers."

"Here we were about to be sacrificed to something ancient and alien that looked like a giant lizard and had the zealousness of a Jesuit missionary and the scruples of a railway company lawyer. That beast was not going to be happy when it learned that its so-called advanced knowledge was outdated by several thousand years."

"You do comprehend, do you not, that symbolically is not the same as fillingly?"

"“Why, we’ll do missionary work for it natcherly,” Drake said, “spreadin’ enlightenment to anybody too dumb to listen, until we have ultimately converted all those souls sufferin’ from excess wealth—” “Yep,” Kruger said. “We’ll give ’em a choice. They can convert from rich to poor or from alive to dead.”"

"Mrs. Jenkins, who had disappeared to “freshen up,” at last made her grand entrance. She swept onto the patio like a cross between a parrot and a wedding cake."

"Manners were something that people who don’t have, but admire, resent not having."

"a ‘modern’ woman who smokes, wears her dresses short, does not believe in religions, churches and the like, and feels that people of the artistic type have a definite chance to help solve the race problem."

"…in talking it over with Negroes, I find that the tale is so old and so well known that it is almost folklore. It has many variations: sometimes it is the woman’s brother, husband, son, lover, preacher, beloved master, or even her father, mother, sister, or daughter who is killed. A Negro sociologist tells me that there are literally hundred of these stories. Anyone could have written it up at any time."

"You are getting the reward, dear Bessie for the simple nature devoid of vaulting ambition which you have always had. Keep it, I pray you. Personal ambition is a demon of unrest. Let those who want to strive to rise above themselves; but you dear Bessie, keep to your simple ways and you will always be a happy woman.Letter from Clara Barton"

"Clara Barton, doing clerical work in a department of the Government and declining to receive compensation therefor, attracted no attention. But Clara Barton in hospitals and on hospital transports, bringing order out of chaos, hope our of despair, and holding death in abeyance; Clara Barton at Andersonville, where 13,000 soldiers had yielded up life under the prolonged horrors of a military prison, and had been ignominiously buried in long trenches, uncared for, united and unknown, attracted the attention and aroused the gratitude of the nation. For she ordered the trenches opened, the unknown dead exhumed and decently buried, each man in a separate grave, with a headstone recording his name, his rank, and the date of his death."

"for my part, I think never was given such an excellent answer on the suffrage question as was given by Clara Barton, that majestic and wonderful woman."

"To this day my seat on a saddle or on the back of a horse is as secure and tireless as in a rocking chair, and far more pleasurable. Sometimes, in later years, when I found myself suddenly on a strange horse in a trooper's saddle, flying for life or liberty in front of pursuit, I blessed the baby lessons of the wild gallops among the beautiful colts."

"Then he tries to kiss me again. And the second time he tries to kiss me he starts biting my lip … He starts to, um, bite on my top lip and I tried to pull away from him. And then he forces me down on the bed. And I just was very frightened, and I tried to get away from him and I told him ‘No,’ that I didn’t want this to happen but he wouldn’t listen to me. … It was a real panicky, panicky situation. I was even to the point where I was getting very noisy, you know, yelling to ‘Please stop.’ And that’s when he pressed down on my right shoulder and he would bite my lip. … When everything was over with, he got up and straightened himself, and I was crying at the moment and he walks to the door, and calmly puts on his sunglasses. And before he goes out the door he says ‘You better get some ice on that.’ And he turned and went out the door"

"The unique function of the nurse is to assist the individual, sick or well, in the performance of those activities contributing to health or its recovery (or to peaceful death) that he would perform unaided if he had the necessary strength, will or knowledge."

"The tasks are done and the tears are shed. Yesterday’s errors let yesterday cover; Yesterday’s wounds, which smarted and bled, Are healed with the healing that night has shed."

"She stood amid the morning dew, And sang her earliest measure sweet, Sang as the lark sings,speeding fair, to touch and taste the purer air"

"Men die but sorrow never dies."

"These are weighty secrets, and we must whisper them."

"The Autumn seems to cry for thee, Best lover of the Autumn-days!"