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

It's possible to fight intolerance, stupidity and fanaticism when they come separately. When you get all three together it's probably wiser to get out, if only to preserve your sanity.

No literary form is more revealing, more spontaneous or more individual than a letter.

All these problems [deciding cases] are easier for people who believe in God. Those of us who don't or can't have to do the best we can. That's what the law is, the best we can do. Human justice is imperfect, but it's the only justice we have.

The world is changed not by the self-regarding, but by men and women prepared to make fools of themselves.

however long we have to live, there are never enough springs.

Murder is the unique crime, the only one for which we can never make reparation to the victim.