It did not matter, after all. He was only one man. One man's fate is not important. "If it is not, what is?" He could not endure those remembered words.

He was appalled by the examination system, when it was explained to him, he could not imagine a greater detterent to the natural wish to learn than this pattern of cramming in information and disgorging it on demand.

One voice speaking truth is a greater force than fleets and armies.

Our roots are in the dark; the earth is our country. Why did we look up for blessing -- instead of around, and down? What hope we have lies there. Not in the sky full of orbiting spy-eyes and weaponry, but in the earth we have looked down upon. Not from above, but from below. Not in the light that blinds, but in the dark that nourishes, where human beings grow human souls.

There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.

It's a rare gift, to know where you need to be, before you've been to all the places you don't need to be.

There are two kinds of knowledge, local and universal.