Author Quotes

Local color has a fatal tendency to remain local; but it is also true that the universal often borders on the void.

Legends are material to be moulded, and not facts to be recorded.

In a continent but recently settled, many parts of which have as yet little historical or cultural background, the material for this volume has been gathered from a section that was one of the first to be colonized.

Here the Frenchman, Spaniard, and Englishman all passed, leaving each his legend; and a brilliant and more or less feudal civilization with its aristocracy and slaves has departed with the economic system upon which it rested.

Each new generation is a fresh invasion of savages.

Thus the castle of each feudal chieftain became a school of chivalry, into which any noble youth, whose parents were from poverty unable to educate him to the art of war, was readily received.

The candidate was required to prepare himself by confession, fasting, and passing the night in prayer.

No period of my life has been one of such unmixed happiness as the four years which have been spent within college walls.

The institution of chivalry forms one of the most remarkable features in the history of the Middle Ages.

The best way to make happy money is to make money your hobby and not your god.

Making money is a hobby that will complement any other hobbies you have, beautifully.

The basic rule of free enterprise: You must give in order to get.

All good is hard. All evil is easy. Dying, losing, cheating, and mediocrity is easy. Stay away from easy.

I love you, what star do you live on?

Separate we come, and separate we go, And this be it known, is all that we know.

All lovely things will have an ending, All lovely things will fade and die; And youth, that's now so bravely spending, Will beg a penny by and by.

Music I heard with you was more than music, and bread I broke with you was more than bread. Now that I am without you, all is desolate; all that was once so beautiful is dead.

They had always told me that I wrote like a man.

People are worms, and even the God who created them is immensely bored with their antics.

It's a sad moment, really, when parents first become a bit frightened of their children.

For us Africans, literature must serve a purpose: to expose, embarrass, and fight corruption and authoritarianism. It is understandable why the African artist is utilitarian.

Slow but steady wins the race.

It is thrifty to prepare today for the wants of tomorrow.

It is in vain to expect our prayers to be heard, if we do not strive as well as pray.

Familiarity breeds contempt.

People often grudge others what they cannot enjoy themselves.

Destroy the seed of evil, or it will grow up to your ruin.

United we stand, divided we fall.

Adventure is worthwhile.

Injuries may be forgiven, but not forgotten.