The big things I declined to take too seriously.

I still read the books, but not with the old eagerness.

I still read the books to-day, but never again shall I read them with that old glory of youthful passion when I harked to the call from over and beyond that whispered me on to win to the mystery at the back of life and behind the stars.
The point of this chapter is that, in the long sickness that at some time comes to most of us, I came through without any appeal for aid to John Barleycorn.

Love, socialism, the PEOPLE--healthful figments of man's mind--were the things that cured and saved me.

If ever a man was not a born alcoholic, I believe that I am that man.