“I've never done a single thing I've wanted to in my whole life! I don't know's I've accomplished anything except just get along. I figure out I've made about a quarter of an inch out of a possible hundred rods. Well, maybe you'll carry things on further. I don't know. But I do get a kind of sneaking pleasure of the fact that you knew what you wanted to do and did it. Well, those folks in there will try to bully you, and tame you down. Tell 'em to go to the devil. I'll back you. Take your factory job, if you want to. Don't be scared of the family. No, nor all of Zenith. Nor of yourself, the way I've been. Go ahead, old man! The world if yours!”
More from Sinclair Lewis
“The effect of his scientific budget planning was that he felt at once triumphantly wealthy…”
“One evening when his wife was away and he had no one to impress...”
“For many minutes...he lay awake, shivering, reduced to a primitive terror, comprehending…”
“The towers of Zenith aspired above the morning mist; austere towers of steel and cement…”