James Agee said this quote

To come devotedly into the depths of a subject, your respect for it increasing in every step and your whole heart weakening apart with shame upon yourself in your dealing with it : To know at length better and better and at length into the bottom of your soul your unworthiness of it : Let me hope in any case that it is something to have begun to learn.

~ James Agee

...and gentle happy and peaceful, tasting the mean goodness of their living like the last of their suppers in their mouths.

~ James Agee

And a human being whose life is nurtured in an advantage which has accrued from the disadvantage of other human beings, and who prefers that this should remain as it is, is a human being by definition only, having much more in common with the bedbug, the tapeworm, the cancer, and the scavengers of the deep sea.

~ James Agee

You never live an inch without involvement and hurting people and fucking yourself everlastingly.

~ James Agee