Um diálogo de «East of Eden», 1955

[Caleb] You're right. I am bad. I knew that for a long time.

[Adam]I didn't mean that, Cal. I spoke in anger.
[Caleb] Well, it's true. Aron's the good one. I guess there's just a certain amount...of good and bad you get from your parents...and I just got the bad.
[Adam] That's not true. Cal, listen to me. You can make of yourself anything you want. It's up to you. A man has a choice. That's where he's different from an animal.

Splendor in the Grass (1961)

Quando crescemos, não só ficamos com a certeza de que não vamos salvar o mundo, como ficamos a saber que não nos salvaremos a nós próprios.

Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be;
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of human suffering;
In the faith that looks through death
In years that bring the philosophic mind.

William Wordsworth, "Ode: Intimations of Imortality from Recollections of Early Childhood", Selected Poems, Penguin, 2004.