We suffer from the illusion that the faster we run, the more likely we are to grasp happiness. The truth is that the velocity necessary for success rarely exceeds the rate of reflection.

To a large extent, the aged in our society are ghettoized. Old people are seen as useless, bypassed by history, old-fashioned, in the way. So, not surprisingly, when we reach the official mark of old age, we're supposed to go gently into that good night, to get off center stage and hand over the spotlight. Old age is also surrounded by shame - the myth of impotence and inability.

In the degree that we remember and retell our stories and create new ones we become the authors, the authorities, of our own lives.

What shapes our lives are the questions we ask, refuse to ask, or never think to ask.

Paranoia reduces anxiety and guilt by transferring to the other all the characteristics one does not want to recognize in oneself. It is maintained by selective perception and recall. We only see and acknowledge those negative aspects of the enemy that support the stereotype we have already created.

When you genuinely lose your illusions, you begin to marvel at things, because you don't have the answers any more.

If we had a better understanding of the ways we think about enemies, we might be able to think of more rational ways of settling conflict.