The difference between hope and despair is a different way of telling stories from the same facts.

Politics is so difficult, it's generally only people who aren't quite up to the task who feel convinced they are.

Literature deserves its prestige for one reason above all others - because it's a tool to help us live and die with a little bit more wisdom, goodness, and sanity.

We are sad at home and blame the weather and the ugliness of the buildings, but on the tropical island we learn that the state of the skies and the appearance of our dwellings can never on their own underwrite our joy nor condemn us to misery.

Differ though we might with Christianity's view of what precisely our souls need, it is hard to discredit the provocative underlying thesis, which seems no less relevant in the secular realm than in the religious one-that we have within us a precious, childlike, vulnerable core which we should nourish and nurture on its turbulent journey through life.

If one felt successful, there'd be so little incentive to be successful.

The materialistic view of happiness of our age starkly revealed in our understanding of the word "luxury.