Maybe the greatest favour a spouse can tender is to overlook what you can't.

Teachers were both blamed for everything that went wrong with kids and turned to for their every salvation. This dual role of scapegoat and savior was downright messianic but even Jesus was probably paid better.

Children live in the same world we do. To kid ourselves that we can shelter them from it isn't just naive it's a vanity.

Notoriety is cheap. It's just easier to get noticed by doing something bad.

A successful lie cannot be brought into this world and capriciously abandoned; like any committed relationship, it must be maintained, and with far more devotion than the truth, which carries on being carelessly true without any help.

Whoa, that's the kind of little sister I can dig!" said Edison. "Yes, we're all alike," I said. "We cover for you, we lie for you, we take the heat for you. We clean up your messes and mollify our parents for you. We never fail to come across with undying adoration, whether or not you deserve it, and we can't take our lives as seriously as yours. We snuffle up the crumbs from your table on the rare occasions you notice we're alive.

Change is like that: you are no longer where you were; you are not yet where you will get; you are nowhere exactly.