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

I've gotta keep life and computers separate, or else I'm gonna go mad.

And I can imagine Farmer saying he doesn't care if no one else is willing to follow their example. He's still going to make these hikes, he'd insist, because if you say that seven hours is too long to walk for two families of patients, you're saying that their lives matter less than some others', and the idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that's wrong with the world.

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

How could a just God permit great misery? The Haitian peasants answered with a proverb: "Bondye konn bay, men li pa konn separe," in literal translation, "God gives but doesn't share." This meant... 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.

If you had an essentially happy childhood, that tends to dwell with you.

The problem is fundamental... It is as if a secret committee, now lost to history, has made a study of children and, having figured out what the greatest number were least disposed to declared that all of them should do it.