“The Awakening Land" p614 But what in God's name did folks today want to make the whole world over like they were for? In her time in the woods, everybody she knew was egged on to be his own special self. He could live and think like he wanted to and no two humans you met up with were alike. Each had his own particular beliefs and his reasons for owning to them. Folks were a joy to talk to then, for all were different. Even the simple-minded were original in their own notions. They either mad you laugh or gave you pause. But folks in Americus today seemed mighty tiresome and getting more so. If you saw one, you saw most. If you heard one talk, it's likely you heard the rest. They were creacked on living like everybody else, according to the fashion, and if you were so queer and outlandish as to go your own way and do what you liked, it bothered their 'narve strings' so they were liable to lock you up in one of their newfangled asylums or take you home where they could hold you down to their way of doing...” LibertyEmpathyFree Will Will Author:Conrad Richter
“The Awakening Land" p628 A strange, uneasy feeling ran over him. If he had been wrong about his mother in this, might he by any chance have been wrong in other things about her also? Could it be even faintly possible that the children of pioneers like himself, born under more benign conditions than their parents, hated them because they themselves were weaker, resented it when their parents expected them to be strong, and so invented all kinds of intricate reasoning to prove that their parents were tyrannical and cruel, their beliefs false and obsolete, and their accomplishments trifling? Never had his mother said that. But once long ago he had heard her mention, not in as many words, that the people were too weak to follow God today, that in the Bible God made strong demands on them for perfection, so the younger generation watered God down, made Him impotent and got up all kinds of reasons why they didn't have to follow Him but could go along their own way.” GodMothersPioneersAnestorsYounger Generations Book:The Awakening Land: The Trees, The Fields, & The Town Source: The Awakening Land: The Trees, The Fields, & The Town
“Never could Mathias give the right answer, but always had he an excuse for being wrong. "I was just a thinkin'," he'd fend himself. "If I hadn't been a thinkin', I wouldn't a thought that way.” HumorExcusesDialect Book:The Fields Source: The Fields
“The Awakening Land" p613 If you made it easy for folks, it seemed like their hardihood had to pay for it. Didn't she know? Which one of her young ones was it she had raised the softest, done the most for, coaxed and prayed along, saved from bad things one time after the other? Wasn't it the same one that now could take life and his country the least and wanted to change God's world over from top to bottom? It was the same with sick folks, Sayward noticed. Once they had been taken care of too long, they got to feeling the world ought to be changed and softened , centered toward themselves.” ResilienceWork EthicWelfare MentalitySelfl Relience Book:The Awakening Land: The Trees, The Fields, & The Town Source: The Awakening Land: The Trees, The Fields, & The Town