Most teachers have little control over school policy or curriculum or choice of texts or special placement of students, but most have a great deal of autonomy inside the classroom. To a degree shared by only a few other occupations, such as police work, public education rests precariously on the skill and virtue of the people at the bottom of the institutional pyramid.

God gives us humans everything we need to flourish, but he's not the one who's supposed to divvy up the loot. That charge was laid upon us

among a coward's weapons, cynicism is the nastiest of all

Things were here before you and will be here after you're gone. The geographic features, especially, give you a sense of your own place in the world and in time

Paul Farmer has helped to build amazing health care system in one of the poorest areas of Haiti. He founded Partners in Health, which serves the destitute and the sick in many parts of the world from Haiti to Boston and from Russia to Peru.

What interests me is trying to catch the reflection of the human being on the page. I'm interested in how ordinary people live their lives

...Attempts at imitation would put the emphasis where it didn't belong. The goal was to improve the lives of others, not oneself.