The time: The Great Depression.
The place: Redmond, Washington. Not today's Redmond, the Software Capital of the World, but a frontier village on the edge of the Washington wilderness, where my mother grew up in a humble home with an outhouse and a wood-burning stove. At a time of material poverty, wealth lay in the bonds of family, friendships, and community. From this setting came my mother's values, which she has tried to pass on to me, on the rare occasions when I have been wise enough to listen.

On relationships:
Used to be when groups got together, the women would sit in one corner and talk about relationships, families, and babies, and the men would sit in the other and talk work, sports, and cars. I don't see what was wrong with that.

Any woman who thinks her husband should communicate needs a good girlfriend.

Make your career the center of your life, and your relationships will fall into place around it.

I know how hard it is to be young, single and celibate, but the emotional swings of sex outside marriage are even harder.

On religion:
There's a lot of nonsense taught in churches, but you learn better values there than in the bars.

Don't marry a woman who thinks more of Jesus than of you. You'll always suffer from the comparisons.

On children:
A baby sets the agenda for a household.

A child is what's left of you when your body is dead and gone. Neglect your child and you neglect your hereafter.

On economics:
People think that money in the bank is security. Real security is a plot of good ground, garden tools, seeds, and the strength to plant and tend them.

On leadership:
I don't care what the Republicans say about Franklin Roosevelt. He made us feel like we were all in the Depression together, and working together, we'd all get out of it. That kept the Blackshirts and Communists from taking over.

Whatever people may say about John Kennedy, he made people want to be better and made them feel they could change the world for the better. That's what a leader should do.

On drugs and alcohol:
The body is the temple of the spirit. Hurt your body and you hurt your spirit. Take care of it, because you only get one.

On objectivism:
The profit motive is morally neutral. Good or bad depends on what you are doing for profit.

On ecology and the environment:
People who think the Hereafter is all that matters are blasphemers. God made this earth and it's our job to take care of it. Whether by God or our descendents, we'll be held accountable.

BACK