The fact that we've been a great democracy doesn't mean we will automatically keep being one if we keep waving the flag.

To be married to a good woman is to live with tender surprise.

Great hope has no real footing unless one is willing to face into the doom that may also be on the way. p.207

Masculinity is not something given to you, but something you gain. And you gain it by winning small battles with honor.

Dying can't be all that difficult-up to now everyone has managed to do it.

I did like Robert Vavra's book not only for its so very good photographs but for the text as well. He's no ordinary fellow, obviously.

Love asks us that we be a little braver than is comfortable, a little more generous, a little more flexible. It means living on the edge more than we care to.