You can't learn to play the piano without playing the piano, you can't learn to write without writing, and, in many ways, you can't learn to think without thinking. Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That's why it's so hard.

Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives. - John Adams

In time I began to understand that it's when you start writing that you really find out what you don't know and need to know.

History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.

It was an utterly phenomenal achievement.

People are so helpful. People will stop what they're doing to show you something, to walk with you through a section of the town, or explain how a suspension bridge really works.

I feel that as much as I enjoy loafing, there is something higher for which to live.