Human beings may be miserable specimens, in the main, but we can learn, and, through learning, become decent people.

She worked her toes into the sand, feeling the tiny delicious pain of the friction of tiny chips of silicon against the tender flesh between her toes. That's life. It hurts, it's dirty, and it feels very, very good.

The old tale of Sleeping Beauty might end happily in French or English, but he was in Russia, and only a fool would want to live through the Russian version of any fairy tale.

It's the teachers, they're the enemy. They get us to fight each other, to hate each other.

His vices were the vices of his time and culture, but his virtues transcended the milieu of his life.

I have hope for you, if only because you're the only one left to hope for.

Firequencher raised his hand. "I've been staying out of family conversations. Do I get credit for that?