I wonder if most people ever ask themselves why love is connected with reproduction. And if they do ask themselves about this, I wonder what answer they give.

The tragedy of being both rational and animal seems to consist in having to choose between duty and desire rather than in making any particular choice

Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.

A good book can teach you about the world and about yourself. You learn more than how to read better; you also learn more about life. You become wiser.

Unless we love and are loved, each of us is alone, each of us is deeply lonely.

Let me roughly divide books into those which compete with the movies and those with which the movies cannot compete. They are the books that can elevate or instruct. If they are fine works of fiction, they can deepen your appreciation of human life. If they are serious works of nonfiction, they can inform or enlighten you.

We wish the joy of love, the joy of companionship, of being in the company of, in the presence of the person we love, of living a common life with that person, perhaps ultimately the joy of perfect union.