Nothing is inevitable in life. People make choices, and those choices have results, and we all live with the results.

Friends never cheat on each other, or take advantage, or lie. Friends do not spy on one another, yet they have no secrets. Friends glory in each other's successes and are downcast by the failures. Friends minister to each other, nurse each other. Friends give to each other, worry about each other, stand always ready to help. Perfect friendship is rarely achieved, but at its height it is an ecstasy.

Trial by jury. Live wherever you can make a living. How could a government based on such principles fail?

In one of his last newsletters, Mike Ranney wrote: "In thinking back on the days of Easy Company, I'm treasuring my remark to a grandson who asked, 'Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?' No,'" I answered, 'but I served in a company of heroes.

Almost everything Truman did in foreign affairs I approve of.

The more sophisticated we get, the more advanced our buildings and vehicles become, the more vulnerable we are.

My favorite book is the last one printed, which is always better than those that were published earlier.