People are just greedy animals, after all.

The most important things in your life are almost always impossible to predict.

Being decent is the only thing that matters in a terrible world like this.

Sacrifice doesn't really exist on a national level anymore and that's a pretty new thing - most people aren't engaged nationally in some form of service and that changes the way you think about people in your country; you kind of think of them at a distance. And so there's that shift away from some sort of sacrifice - thinking of yourself as the most important thing in the world versus thinking of yourself as some sort of a whole.

Do not be confused by what the natural world knows: We are all, in our own way, completely and totally alone. If love is real, it is complete and total failing of the intellect. It is utter self-destruction. It is pandemonium.

What I've learned is that there is nothing in this life that does not fail to disappoint us, even our own deaths.

The longer human beings exist, it seems, the less likely we are to choose to be brave.