Americans should never come to Europe,' she said, and tried to laugh and began to cry, 'it means they never can be happy again. What's the good of an American who isn't happy? Happiness was all we had.

The white man discovered the Cross by way of the Bible, but the black man discovered the Bible by way of the Cross.

I prefer sinners and madmen, who can learn, who can change, who can teach-or people like myself, if I may say so, who are not afraid to eat a lobster alone as they take on their shoulders the monumental weight of thirty years

The universe, which is not merely the stars and the moon and the planets, flowers, grass and trees, but other people, has evolved no terms for your existence, has made no room for you, and if love will not swing wide the gates, no other power will or can. And if one despairs-- as who has not?-- of human love, God's love alone is left.

American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it.

A liberal: someone who thinks he knows more about your experience than you do.

If you really want to know something about solitude, become famous.