In Passing

 "Say what you want to, but I know it was," Terri says.  "It may sound crazy to you, but it's true just the same.  People are different, Mel.  Sure, sometimes he may have acted crazy.  Okay.  But but he loved me.  In his own way maybe, but he loved me.  There was love there, Mel.  Don't say there wasn't."

Raymond Carver, "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love"

At the begging of the war in 1861, Grant, who had just been promoted to Brigadier General, was not an impressive looking soldier.  When he showed up in Cairo, Illinois, on September 2, 1861, no one was there to greet him.  No one knew anything about his except that he had a fondness for whiskey.  He was short, alight, and stoop-shouldered.  His beard needed trimming; he was 5'8" and weighed a mere 130 lbs.

Donald L. Miller - Vicksburg, p. 12

A 24-year-old young man who was generous with his time and his treasure, especially for children, is fighting for his life. How do we make sense such a thing? How do we understand it? There isn’t any way.

-Sportswriter Phillip Marshall in Auburn Undercover

Character is destiny.

-Russell W. Gough in  Character is Destiny