# Quote — John Knowles, A Separate Peace

> Now I see what racing skiing is all about. It's all right to miss seeing the trees and the countryside and all the other things when you've got to be in a hurry. And when you're in a war you've got to be in a hurry. Don't you? So I guess maybe racing skiers weren't ruining the sport after all. They were preparing it, if you see what I mean, for the future. Everything has to evolve or else it perishes. . . I'm almost glad this war came along. It's like a test, isn't it, and only the things and the people who've been evolving the right way survive.

- Author: [John Knowles](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-knowles.md)
- Book: [A Separate Peace](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-knowles/a-separate-peace.md)
- Page: 116
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Knowles#A_Separate_Peace_(1959)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-knowles/a-separate-peace/now-i-see

## More from this book

> I lost part of myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become a part of Phineas.

p. 85 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-knowles/a-separate-peace/i-lost-part.md)

> Nothing endures, not a tree, not love, not even a death by violence.

p. 14 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-knowles/a-separate-peace/nothing-endures-not.md)

> Naturally I don't believe books and I don't believe teachers, but I do believe-it's important for me to believe you [Gene]. Christ, I've got to believe you, at least. I know you better than anybody.

p. 163 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-knowles/a-separate-peace/naturally-i-dont.md)