“ I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral, and you do not cry in that case. John Knowles
“ I had to be right in never talking about what you could not change, and I had to make many people agree that I was right. None of them ever accused me of being responsible for what had happened to Phi… John Knowles
“ Once again I had the desolating sense of having all along ignored what was finest in him. Perhaps it was just the incongruity of seeing him aloft and stricken, since he was by nature someone who carri… John Knowles
“ There are special, strange gifted people in the world and they have to be treated with understanding John Knowles
“ There are simply more young people than there ever were. You get this feeling of strength. Also, large numbers can be a drawback, making it difficult to lose one's anonymity. John Knowles
“ Phineas didn't really dislike West Point in particular or authority in general, but just considered authority the necessary evil against which happiness was achieved by reaction, the backboard which r… John Knowles
“ My misery was too deep to speak any more. I scanned the page; I was having trouble breathing, as though the oxygen were leaving the room. Amid its devastation my mind flashed from thought to thought,… John Knowles
“ I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn't help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal. There was no harm in envying even your best friend a little John Knowles
“ Most of the students there, he said, don't know what they think. You tell 'em, they'll think it. I plan to tell 'em. John Knowles
“ In the deep, tacit way in which feeling becomes stronger than thought, I had always felt that the Devon School came into existence the day i entered it, was vibrantly real while i was a student there,… John Knowles
“ Phineas created an atmosphere in which I continued now to live, a way of sizing up the world with erratic and entirely personal reservations, letting its rocklike facts sift through and be accepted on… John Knowles
“ ...his jaw tightening and his eyes closed on the tears. “I believe you. It’s okay because I understand and I believe you. John Knowles
“ All of them, all except Phineas, constructed at infinite cost to themselves these Maginot Lines against this enemy they thought they saw across the frontier, this enemy who never attacked that way-if… John Knowles
“ Never say you are five feet nine whenyou are five feet eight and a half" was the first one I encountered.Another was, "Always say some prayers at night because it might turnout that there is a God. John Knowles
