It's a very American trait, this wanting people to think well of us. It's a young want, and I am ashamed of it in myself. I am not always a good daughter, even though my lacks are in areas different from her complaints. Haven't I learned yet that the desire to be perfect is always disastrous and, at the least, loses me in the mire of false guilt?

When I start a new seminar I tell my students that I will undoubtedly contradict myself, and that I will mean both things. But an acceptance of contradiction is no excuse for fuzzy thinking. We do have to use our minds as far as they will take us, yet acknowledge that they cannot take use all the way.

I knew that the moment I started worrying about whether or not I was good enough for the job, I wouldn't be able to do it.

A new year can begin only because the old year ends.

And joy is always a promise.

The growth of love is not a straight line, but a series of hills and valleys.

There is nothing so secular that it cannot be sacred, and that is one of the deepest messages of the Incarnation.