She understood the nature of sin and knew that its most volatile form was the kind that did not recognize itself.

But even her demons she invested with inordinate beauty, consecrated them with the dignity of her attention.

He was one of those rare men who are capable of being fully in love only once in their lives.

There are no verdicts to childhood, only consequences, and the bright freight of memory.

These are the quicksilver moments of my childhood I cannot remember entirely. Irresistible and emblematic, I can recall them only in fragments and shivers of the heart.

I lived with the terrible knowledge that one day I would be an old man still waiting for my real life to start. Already, I pitied that old man.

College was to teach me that I was one of life's journeymen, eager to excel but lacking the requisite gifts.

Writing poetry and reading books causes brain damage.

Losing well was a gift, but winning well is this stuff of the authentic manhood.

The desolate narrowness, the definitive thinness of experience is both the vainglory and the dead giveaway of a provincial man.

It would always be my burden, not that I lacked genius, but that I was fully aware of it.

it's a losing battle at this point, but so was the alamo

There is no question that climate change is happening the only arguable point is what part humans are playing in it.

I was surprised to find myself so much fuller of Faults than I had imagined, but I had the Satisfaction of seeing them diminish.

Scientists have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is life after death -- though they say it's virtually impossible to get decent Chinese food.

Mercy. That is the gospel. The whole of it in one word.

We are not committed to this or that. We are committed to the nothing in-between, whether we know it or not.

I have this philosophy that A and B students work for C students.

Life's too short. I'm not!

Man's nature is not essentially evil. Brute nature has been know to yield to the influence of love. You must never despair of human nature.

Cartoons are like fruit flies. Biologists use fruit flies because their large chromosomes and short life cycle make them ideal for studying hereditary changes.