“A slave in the fields one night
He's running along
Gets far enough to be a free man
And he's feeling so strong”

“The right to own is the mark of a free man. The slave is a slave simply because he is denied that right. And because the free man is secure in the possession and enjoyment of what he produces, and the slave is not, the spur to production is in one and not in the other.”

“As long as man is a slave to another power, he is not free to serve God with mature responsibility. He is not free to become what he is—human.”

“The man who feels that he must be hopeful and cheerful to get along ignores the careers of some pretty successful misanthropes.”

“Freedom of mind is the real freedom. A person whose mind is not free though he may not be in chains, is a slave, not a free man. One whose mind is not free, though he may not be in prison, is a prisoner and not a free man. One whose mind is not free though alive, is no better than dead. Freedom of mind is the proof of one's existence.”

“I look at Hank and he nods and I nod and for a brief second I feel strong. Not strong enough to face myself, but strong enough to keep going.”

“At night there are no more farmers, no more farms.
At night the fields dream, the fields are the forest.
The boy stands looking at the fox
As if, if he looked long enough — he looks at it.
Or is it the fox is looking at the boy?
The trees can't tell the two of them apart.”

“When is man strong until he feels alone?”

“The individual living in America as it was meant to be would be free to run his business as he wishes, associate with those he likes, dissociate from those he dislikes or disapproves; hire, fire, rent to or evict from, invest and disinvest, speak and misspeak at will. This hypothetical free man is at liberty to bruise as many feelings as he likes, so long as his mitts stop at the next man's face. So long as he harms nobody's person or property, our mythic man may live as he wishes to live.”

“A man in debt is so far a slave.”