"... a while to learn about the river and to realize that [settlers] must plan their home sites with an acknowledged zone of respect for its steady appetite, surrender a hundred or so yards to its hungry future." Chapter 1, p. 4.

"Proven! that the fool Man will ... relinquish his firmest stand for Love ... Love ... Draeger believed - actually does conquer all; Love - or the Fear of Not Having It, or the Worry about Not Having Enough of It, or the Terror of Losing It ... to Draeger this knowledge was a weapon ..." Chapter 1, p. 10.

"[Draeger] had been collecting such aphorisms for years now, and dreamed of some day compiling them into a book of essays. But even if the dream failed to come off, the little phrases came in quite handy in his work, little notes taken daily in the lesson of life. Should a test ever present itself, he...