As a whole part of psychological education it needs to be remembered that a neurosis can be valuable; also that adjustment to a sick and insane environment is of itself not health but sickness and insanity. – James Agee
Children, taught either years beneath their intelligence or miles wide of relevance to it, or both: their intelligence becomes hopelessly bewildered, drawn off its centers, bored, or atrophied. – James Agee
When he ran from a cop his transitions from accelerating walk to easy jog trot to brisk canter to headlong gallop to flogged-piston sprint…were as distinct and as soberly in order as an automatic gearshift. – James Agee
He used this great, sad, motionless face to suggest various related things: a one-track mind near the tracks end of pure insanity; mulish imperturbability under the wildest of circumstances; how dead a human being can get and still be alive… – James Agee