Human lives seldom conform to the conventions of fiction. Chekhov says that it is in the beginnings and endings of stories that we are most tempted to lie. I know what he means, and I agree.

It is the abiding concern of thinking people to preserve what keeps men human-to save our contact with nature of which we are a part.

Faith can reclaim deserts as well as move mountains.

Most things break, including hearts. The lessons of life amount not to wisdom, but to scar tissue and callus.

Every book that anyone sets out on is a voyage of discovery that may discover nothing. Any voyager may be lost at sea, like John Cabot. Nobody can teach the geography of the undiscovered. All he can do is encourge the will to explore, plus impress upon the inexperienced a few of the dos and don'ts of voyaging.

It is the beginning of wisdom when you recognize that the best you can do is choose which rules you want to live by, and it's persistent and aggravated imbecility to pretend you can live without any.

Home is a notion that only nations of the homeless fully appreciate and only the uprooted comprehend.