It is perfectly possible to be enamoured of Paris while remaining totally indifferent or even hostile to the French.

how can one respect, let alone adopt, the values of a people who do not, on any level whatever, live the way they say they do, or the way they say they should?

Be careful what you set your heart upon - for it will surely be yours.

If one cannot risk oneself, then one is simply incapable of giving. And, after all, one can give freedom only by setting someone free.

To be born in a free society and not to be born free is to be born into a lie. To be told by co-citizens and co-Christians that you have no value, no history, have never done anything that is worthy of human respect destroys you because in the beginning you believe it.

Any real change implies the breakup of the world as one has always known it, the loss of all that gave one an identity, the end of safety.

I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.