The acquiring of culture is the development of an avid hunger for knowledge and beauty

Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be said about it. It is like the perfume of a rose: you can smell it and that is all.

The hunger and thirst for knowledge, the keen delight in the chase, the good humored willingness to admit that the scent was false, the eager desire to get on with the work, the cheerful resolution to go back and begin again, the broad good sense, the una

Books are the compasses and telescopes and sextants and charts which othermen have prepared to help us navigate the dangerous seas of human life.

To me the clash of that culture is the beauty of Appalachia.

Getting a little bit of knowledge in advance on the kinds of things that are expected in a particular culture would be one of the most important things you can do,