In kindergarten, you can learn how to be a citizen of the world.

When carrying a concealed weapon for self-defense is understood NOT as a failure of civil society, to be mourned, but as an act of citizenship, to be vaunted, there is little civilian life left.

Nineteenth-century grass-roots populism made twentieth-century progressivism possible.

The study of history requires investigation, imagination, empathy, and respect. Reverence just doesnt enter into it.

History is a long and endlessly interesting argument, where evidence is everything and storytelling is everything else.

Why do beautiful women love ugly men?

Mainly, the more faddish and newer stages of life are really just marketing schemes. Tweenhood. The young old. The quarter-life crisis.

Germ theory, which secularized infectious disease, had a side effect: it sacralized epidemiology.

Stages of life are artifacts. Adolescence is a useful contrivance, midlife is a moving target, senior citizens are an interest group, and tweenhood is just plain made up.

Folklore used to be passed by word of mouth, from one generation to the next; thats what makes it folklore, as opposed to, say, history, which is written down and stored in an archive.

Old reference books are like tree rings. Without them, there'd be no way to know what a tree had lived through.

Compassion crowns the soul with its truest victory.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The greater the pressure the brighter the diamond.

Harry was a bright boy. And like many bright boys, he had a little mischief in him.

I wanted to be a singer forever. But it's not really my cup of tea. Having the whole world know who you are.

Even hatred of vileness Distorts a mans features.

When you have no experience of pain, it is rather hard to experience joy.

Life happens from within. How aware you are of it, decides the quality of your body, your mind, and your experience of life.

Some people, they get down in a hole so deep they can't figure out what to hold on to.

[Using humor to explore serious issues] disarms people. It's a way in. It's gentle, but at the same time it's subversive, and I like that duality.