Ambition, if it were to be savored, let alone achieved, had to be rooted in possibility.

Can we ever break free of the devices and desires of our own hearts? Might not our conscience be telling us what we most want to hear?

The tragedy of loss is not that we grieve, but that we cease to grieve, and then perhaps the dead are dead at last.

No government can act in advance of the moral will of the people.

the unforgivable was usually the most easily forgiven.

gossip ... was like any other commodity in the marketplace. You received it only if you had something of value to give.

For me, the dead remain dead. If I couldn't believe that, I don't think I could go on living.