Often continuity is visible only in retrospect.

We do not need to understand other people and their customs fully to interact with them and learn in the process; it is making the effort to interact without knowing all the rules, improvising certain situations, which allows us to grow.

The caretaking has to be done. "Somebody's got to be the mommy." Individually, we underestimate this need, and as a society we make inadequate provision for it. Women take up the slack, making the need invisible as we step in to fill it.

We are not what we know but what we are willing to learn.

Every loss recapitulates earlier losses, but every affirmation of identity echoes earlier moments of clarity.

As you get up in the morning, as you make decisions, as you spend money, make friends, make commitments, you are creating a piece of art called your life.

Most higher education is devoted to affirming the traditions and origins of an existing elite and transmitting them to new members.