Is the small town a place, truly, of the world, or is it no more than something out of a boy's dreaming? Out of his love of all things not of death made? All things somewhere beyond the dust, rust, and decay, beyond the top, beyond all sides, beyond bottom: outside, around, over, under, within?

I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia. See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.

There could be no extreme vanity in my recognition of myself, if in fact there could be any at all.

No enemy is so annoying as one who was a friend, or still is a friend, and there are many more of these than one would suspect.

But the world was my home and I was glad to be in it.

No man's guilt is not yours, nor is any man's innocence a thing apart.