Americas presidents tend to die young. Maybe it is in the nature of the men who reach such heights, or of the job once they attain it.

There may be no less original idea than the notion that our hearts hold dominion over our heads.

A runner's stride is not perfectly efficient.

If Heaven is willing to sing to us, it is little to ask that we be ready to listen.

In his final remarks to the White House staff, on the day he resigned his office, Nixon applied a version of the lesson to himself. “Always remember, others may hate you, but those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.

Americas presidents tend to die young. Maybe it is in the nature of the men who reach such heights, or of the job once they attain it.

Death will never be pretty - its sights and smells too close and crude. And it will never come under our control: it gallops where we tiptoe, rips up our routines, burns our very breath with its heat and sting.