John Knowles Quotes

Looking back, it puzzles me that my parents decided to stay in Shanghai when they must have known that war was imminent. But the cotton works were my father's responsibility, and duty then counted for something.

Responsibility will mellow and sober the youth and prepare them, for the burden they must discharge.

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.

Being a kid and growing up is such a cool part of life.

Most of us don't mind doing what we ought to do when it doesn't interfere with what we want to do, but it takes discipline and maturity to do what we ought to do whether we want to or not.

17 is the weirdest age, because you can't figure out if you want to grow up or be a child.

Each man ... shall serve for a training and service period of 12 consecutive months unless sooner discharged, except that whenever the Congress has declared that the national interest is imperiled, such 12-month period may be extended by the President to such time as may be necessary in the interests of national defense.

The sad state of war makes it my duty to build.

I should not care to live half-frozen in a trench, up to my middle in water, for three or four months, because someone in authority said I ought to shoot Germans. But if I were a Frenchman I should do it, because I would have been accustomed to the idea by my compulsory military service.

I felt sorry I enlisted.

Sixty years ago I knew everything. Now I know nothing. Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.

Public opinion said that every man who did not embrace the very surest and earliest opportunity of getting himself mustered into actual service was a coward.

When Nature gives a young man no other utilizable faculty, she must be understood as intending him for a soldier.

Anything which tends to bring a greater sense of responsibility to individuals should be encouraged.

I come from a town of 3 thousand people. If I didn't go someone else would have to go in my place.

I have great difficulty in finding a good reason for telling boys eighteen years old they should not go in the Army. I presume this is because I think there is nothing more important in the world than to win this war [World War II], because if we don't win it there won't be any schools to go to.

You must remember that anyone under 30 - especially a ballplayer - is an adolescent. I never got close to being an adult until I was 32. Even though I was married and had a son at 20, I was a kid at 32, living at home with my parents. Sure, I was a manager then. That doesn't mean you're grown up.

I've never been more than 9 years old.

I joined the army after 9/11, after the Iraq war was started. I joined in part because I wanted to go fight on the front lines.

For someone to have faith in you at the tender age of 16 is massive.

I didn't really go to school much, and I went out a lot. At 16, that's not something you should be doing.

I'll never forget when I was 12 years old. I couldn't wait until the day I was 16 and could drive a car. I thought that'd be the end of life's problems. I mean, you can drive! What is there left? And then I turned 16 and realized there were still problems.

My life has taken on a different course. I've got a responsibility now not just as a husband but as a father.

High school is something that we have to deal with. It's not a glorified fluffy, fun, prince-and-princess kind of time.

I had no plans to become a responsible person.