What passes for identity in America is a series of myths about one's heroic ancestors.

The interior life is a real life, and the intangible dreams of people have a tangible effect on the world.

The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.

But the relationship of morality and power is a very subtle one. Because ultimately power without morality is no longer power.

We are very cruelly trapped between what we would like to be and what we actually are. And we cannot possibly become what we would like to be until we are willing to ask ourselves just why the lives we lead on this continent are mainly so empty, so tame, and so ugly.

In order to have a conversation with someone you must reveal yourself.

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?