To be an American is to move on, as if we could outrun change. To attach oneself to place is to surrender to it, and suffer with it.

The very nature of marriage means saying yes before you know what it will cost. Though you may say the “I do” of the wedding ritual in all sincerity, it is the testing of that vow over time that makes you married.

I was taught that I had to 'master' subjects. But who can 'master' beauty, or peace, or joy?

There are men I could spend eternity with. But not this life.

Only Christ could have brought us all together, in this place, doing such absurd but necessary things.

I've come to see conspiracy theories as the refuge of those who have lost their natural curiosity and ability to cope with change.

The demon of acedia -- also called the noonday demon -- is the one that causes the most serious trouble of all. . . . He makes it seem that the sun barely moves, if at all, and . . . he instills in the heart of the monk a hatred for the place, a hatred for his very life itself.