Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.

There is a sad disconnectedness that overcomes a library when its owner is gone.

This is the most important thing I will ever say to you. The human mind is the ultimate testing device. You can take all the notes you want on the technical data, anything you forget you can look up again, but this must be engraved on your hearts in letters of fire. There is nothing, nothing, nothing, more important to me in the men and women I train than their absolute personal integrity. Whether you function as welders or inspectors, the laws of physics are implacable lie detectors. You may fool men. You will never fool metal. That’s all.

I'd storm heaven for you, if I knew where it was.

It’s important that someone celebrate our existence," she objected amiably. "People are the only mirror we have to see ourselves in. The domain of all meaning. All virtue, all evil, are contained only in people. There is none in the universe at large. Solitary confinement is a punishment in every human culture.

I've got forward momentum. There's no virtue in it. It's just a balancing act. I don't dare stop.

History does not so much repeat as echo, I suppose.