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He possessed an extra vigor, a heightened confidence in himself, a serene capacity for affection which saved him. Nothing as he was growing up at home, nothing at Devon, nothing even about the war had broken his harmonious and natural unity. So at last I had.

— John Knowles A Separate Peace (1959)

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Notes from Wikiquote

P. 194-195

More quotes by John Knowles

Nothing endures, not a tree, not love, not even a death by violence.

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Stranded in this mill town railroad yard while the whole world was converging elsewhere, we seemed to be nothing but children playing among heroic men.

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I lost part of myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become a part of Phineas.

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It seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart.

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Naturally I don't believe books and I don't believe teachers, but I do believe-it's important for me to believe you [Gene]. Christ, I've got to believe you, at least. I know you better than anybody.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John Knowles (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.