People spoke in whispers, as if the war was listening

Life took longer to reassemble than it did to blow apart, but that didn't mean it wouldn't be lovely, providing that one remembered to go for country walks, and to tune the wireless to music.

One could always imagine that one's life, though smoldering in parts, might be undamaged in the west.

But what good is it to teach a child to count, if you don't show him that he counts for something?

They spoke of small things at first, since it was best, when reattaching threads, to begin with the easiest knots.

She knew, now, why her father had not spoken of the last war, nor Alistair of his. It was hardly fair on the living.

I suppose we ought to be getting home, in any case.”“Oh god, is it wartime already?”“Look on the bright side: it’ll be dinner when we get back.

The first problem of war was that no one was any good at it yet.

Then I’m tempted to die just to … spite him.”“That’s the spirit that will win us the war.

There in the sweet sacking smell of the mail bags he understood that he was dying, and it pleased him that he was going in the company of so many soft words home.

Everything can be restored. If one won't believe that, how does one endure all this?

Wisdom defines the limits of one's knowledge and responsibility pushes one beyond those limits

We bring to everything we read the expectations we have built up by a lifetime of reading.

Governor Romney has been a great success in business. He has been a great success as executive, as governor of Massachusetts. I think that's the kind of guy we want in the White House.

Hillary Clinton's been talking about the inner cities for 25 years. Nothing's going to ever happen.

Gratitude is liberating. It is subversive. It helps us to realize that we are sufficient, and that realization frees us.

Modern, not bottom-dwelling literature like a carp.

And some are fall'n, to disobedience fall'n, And so from Heav'n to deepest Hell; O fall From what high state of bliss into what woe!

I really didn't know a lot of rock 'n' roll until I moved to L.A. Before that, when I was in New York, I grew up listening mostly to R&B and soul and jazz.

A philosopher always finds more grass to feed upon in the valleys of stupidity than on the arid heights of intelligence.

There are two kinds of people. There are leaders and there are followers. And I'm a follower.