John Knowles

Novelist

1926-09-16

Quotes by 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 he ever attacked at all; if he was indeed the enemy.

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• 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.

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• 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 he ever attacked at all; if he was indeed the enemy.

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• 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.

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• Looking back, I think we were all quite mature, surprisingly responsible. In earlier wars, boys of our age had just gone off to raise hell or enlist or both, but we stayed dutifully at our desks doing tomorrow's homework.

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• Teenagers today are more free to be themselves and to accept themselves.

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• My father was in the coal business in West Virginia. Both dad and mother were, however, originally from Massachusetts; New England, to them, meant the place to go if you really wanted an education.

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• The best teaching I ever experienced was at Exeter. Yale was a distinct letdown afterward.

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