Nice things are done for our own sake, not for the sake of others. The pleasure must reside in the performance, not in the applause. Good deeds are, in a deeper psychological way, a favor to oneself. If this is not grasped, then our whole sense of personal relationships becomes warped.

A truly successful person knows how to overcome the past, use the present, and prepare for the future-but unless we can first surmount the past, we cannot effectively cope with either the present or the future.

Time is love, above all else. It is the most precious commodity in the world and should be lavished on those we care most about.

Good teaching must be slow enough so that it is not confusing, and fast enough so that it is not boring.

Norbert Blei is a writer the way people used to be troubadours and minstrels, celebrating what he has seen and heart and felt in a deceptively simple style reminiscent of the early Sherwood Anderson. . . . Like Anderson, he is a lover, and his affection invests his writing with a singular charm.

It may be true that the weak will always be driven to the wall; but it is the task of a just society to see that the wall is climbable.

Why do most Americans look up to education and down upon educated people?