Like Aurelia, he is a lover of humanity in all its quirks and foibles, quick to delight and slow to judge.

Disseminating knowledge is the human duty, sharing it about so that all can benefit.

Combinations of people, who should have nothing to say to each other. Yet, with hearts that do not recognize it.

A bed is a place where so much of life is played out - births and deaths and passions and dreaming - all the most fundamental moments of our fragile human existence.

Those dreams seem very simple to me now, a crude, crayon-drawn picture by a wistful child. But the beauty of impossible dreams is that they are impossible - the hows and whens don't really matter.

We both loved the birds and animals and plants. We both felt far happier out of doors. I felt a peace in nature that I could never find in the human world, as you know.

It is extraordinary how the human mind sees what it anticipates and is blind to anything that could not be dreamed of.

That's how it is with a thing like grief as well. It lies oil slick over everything you do. It will pour out through the gaps in the most ordinary afternoons.

When I entered federal parliament at the end of 2007, I was appointed parliamentary secretary for disabilities.

I formed a resolution to never write a word I did not want to write; to think only of my own tastes and ideals, without a thought of those of editors or publishers.

Be careful not to blame yourself if someone rejects Christ. If you do, you might be tempted to take credit when someone accepts him.

I'm always telling people who say two men can't make a baby: 'Anything is possible for God. I'm going to keep inseminating my husband and keep my fingers crossed.'

The dignity of history.

Joseph Obomsawin, the elder I lived with there, says that those who turn to animals do so because humans have let them down.

Solitude is the one place where we can gain freedom from the forces of society that will otherwise relentlessly mold us. Solitude requires relentless perseverance.

But you can try to read books at the wrong time or for the wrong reasons.

Man must be able to escape civilization if he is to survive. Some of his greatest needs are for refuges and retreats where he can recapture for a day or a week the primitive conditions of life.