I've read there is no such thing as a single tear, that old poetic trope. And perhaps there isn't, since hers was simply a companion to my own.

It was good to walk into a library again; it smelled like home.

The heart does not go backward. Only the mind.

When you handle books all day long, every new one is a friend and a temptation.

It was not the brutality of what occurred next that changed my mind and brought home to me the full meaning of fear. It was the brilliance of it.

The problem is simply finding the right person. Ask Plato. Just make sure she finishes your thoughts and you finish hers. That's all you need.

As you know, human history is full of evil deeds, and maybe we ought to think of them with tears, not fascination.

...History it seemed could be something entirely different a splash of blood whose agony didn't fade overnight or over centuries.

It's funny; in this era of e-mail and voice mail and all those things that even I did not grow up with, a plain old paper letter takes on amazing intimacy.

There is nothing harder, at moments, than talking to someone who has all the power of silence.

...what will we someday do, I always wonder, without the pleasures of turning through books and stumbling on things we never meant to find?

The creature who lives inside my brain suggested I do it, ” I offered tentatively. “It was very convincing.

Islam appears to me like a perfect work of architecture. All its parts are harmoniously conceived to complement and support each other

Living is deeper than just life

As a collaborative leader, you support people in their work—you remove roadblocks and help them win.

Half is better than none unless it be of a wit.

You'll be my glass of wine I'll be your shot of whiskey

A race, like an individual, lifts itself up by lifting others up.

It would be ideal if we could have an uncontrolled flow of information. But we realized you can't do that.

They erase my face with a layer of pale makeup and draw my features back out.