# Quote — William Alexander Percy, Lanterns On The Levee

> One night Jakie Smith rushed into my room with the sudden illumination: "I know what it is! The law is common sense plus clear English!" I've never heard a better definition of what the law should be and isn't. (Ch. 11)

- Author: [William Alexander Percy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-alexander-percy.md)
- Book: [Lanterns On The Levee](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-alexander-percy/lanterns-on-the-levee.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Alexander_Percy#Lanterns_on_the_Levee_(1941)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-alexander-percy/lanterns-on-the-levee/one-night-jakie

## More from this book

> Honor and honesty, compassion and truth are good even if they kill you, for they alone give life its dignity and worth. (Ch. 24)

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-alexander-percy/lanterns-on-the-levee/honor-and-honesty.md)

> Our woods are not made for walking because the vines and bushes are too rampant and the rattlesnakes too much at home. But the high levee is perfect for a stroll, which you can extend, if so minded, a hundred miles in either direction. (Ch. 12, on Greenville, Mississippi)

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-alexander-percy/lanterns-on-the-levee/our-woods-are.md)

> That short period of my life spent in the line is the only one I remember step by step – as if it moved sub specie aeternitatis. Not that I enjoyed it; I hated it. Not that I was fitted for it by temperament or ability, I was desperately unfitted; but it, somehow, had meaning, and daily life hasn't: it was part of a common endeavor, and daily life is isolated and lonely. (Ch. 17, on his service on the Western Front in World War I)

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-alexander-percy/lanterns-on-the-levee/that-short-period.md)