I wanted that future officer to weigh decisions with a supple mind and to be comfortable with nuance and uncertainty.

The best thing we could have done for Afghanistan was to get out of our Humvees and drink more green chai. We should have focused less on finding the enemy, and more on finding our friends.

You are not your emotions and they are not who you are, only how you feel at the moment.

A gentleman is man who can disagree without being disagreeable.

The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.

knowledge of our own mortality is the greatest gift God ever gives us.

We wanted peace and we wanted to come to terms with the Israelis.

I thought to discourage aesthetics... I threw the bottlerack and the urinal in their faces and now they admire them for their aesthetic beauty.

The struggle ends when gratitude begins.

But against love, the case was solid. Easily argued. And you could, indeed, hold it in your hand.

One should be able to teach adequately and feel good about it.

There's only one boss in your life . . . and that's you! The person looking back in the mirror at you is the one you have to answer to every day.