One set of messages of the society we live in is: Consume. Grow. Do what you want. Amuse yourselves.

To the militant, identity is everything.

Kindness, kindness, kindness. I want to make a New Year's prayer, not a resolution. I'm praying for courage.

In the journal I do not just express myself more openly than I could to any person; I create myself.

Fatal illness has always been viewed as a test of moral character, but in the nineteenth century there is a great reluctance to let anybody flunk the test.

To paraphrase several sages: Nobody can think and hit someone at the same time.

Depression is melancholy minus its charms - the animation, the fits.