Quotes: Wonder. Wood Pile. Word Choice.

Wonder
He who can’t wonder at life is as good as dead.
Wonder 100 Einstein: He to whom this emotion [sensation of the mystical] is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein

It annoys me very much that people explain away the wonder and mystery of life.
Wonder 939 It annoys me very much, said Hilda, this inclination, which most people have, to explain away the wonder and the mystery out of everything. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.

Wood Pile
Men look at their wood piles with affection.
Wood pile 522 Every man looks at his wood-pile with a kind of affection. Thoreau, Walden.

Word Choice
JFK tried to avoid “weasel” words.
Word choice 68 He [Kennedy] wanted his major policy statements to be positive, specific, and definite, avoiding the use of “suggest,” “perhaps” and “possible alternatives for consideration.” Sorenson, Kennedy

People who supported JFK were referred to as “political leaders” while his opponents were referred to as “bosses.”
Word choice 180 It should be noted that powerful Kennedy supporters are referred to in this book as “political leaders,” those in the opposition camp are called “bosses.” Sorenson, Kennedy

The difference between the right word and the nearly right word is the same as between lightning and the lightning bug.
Word choice 176 Mark Twain: The difference between the right word and the nearly right word is the same as that between lightning and the lightning bug. Plimpton, ed. The Writer’s Chapbook

The origin of the word “shoddy” comes from the Civil War profiteers.
Word Origin 481 A class of reckless war-profit spenders were named the “Shoddy,” a word from the textile trade where a compound of refuse and sweepings pounded, rolled, glued and smoothed into the external form and gloss of cloth was known as shoddy. 481 Harper’s Monthly of July ’64…told of soldiers on the first day’s march or in their first storm finding their jackets and trousers, overcoats and blankets scattering to the winds in rags or breaking into scraps and dust under a driving rain. Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The War Years.