[Grief] is everything. It is the fabric of selfhood, and beautifully chaotic. It shares mathematical characteristics with many natural forms.

Perfect devices: doctors, ghosts and crows. We can do things other characters can't, like eat sorrow, un-birth secrets and have theatrical battles with language and God.

And this is a grave responsibility, projected from within each of us, not to settle for the convenient, the shoddy, the conventionally expected, nor the merely safe.

Sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.

Most presidents come to Washington bright as freshly minted dimes and leave much diminished.

The ear in man and beast is an evidence of blood and high breeding.

Now I call myself a bleeding heart libertarian. Because I do believe in the principles of Libertarianism as an ideal - because I'm an idealist.

Our wealth is rewarded directly in proportion to the number of people with whom we are willing to share.

The kindness and affection from the public have carried me through some of the most difficult periods, and always your love and affection have eased the journey.

Was that amazing?” she demanded. “That was amazing,” I agreed. It’s hard to pull off a romantic kiss when you’re both drenched in muck, but we gave it our best shot.

To prevent evil is the great end of government, the end for which vigilance and severity are properly employed.

A good decision is our will to do everything we can within our power. It means to serve God with all we've got, be it little or much. Every person can do that.