The Irish have a flair for wringing from death the last drop of emotion and they do not quite understand those who react otherwise.

On my tenth birthday a bicycle and an atlas coincided as presents and a few days later I decided to cycle to India.

hatred, however apparently justifiable, excusable or inevitable, always damages the hater.

Buying a bicycle is a momentous event, akin to marriage: you are acquiring a partner.

Sunnis consider Shias a pack of unwholesome fanatics and Shias consider Sunnis a gang of lukewarm no-goods - there's nothing like religion for spreading brotherly love!

one of the advantages of cycling is that it automatically prevents a journey from becoming an Expedition.

... strong bonds are forged in high emotional temperatures.

poverty denotes a lack of necessities and simplicity a lack of needs.

... I know a number of Western children who would benefit greatly if only someone were primitive enough to inhibit the development of their personalities.

Is this something else our age does - on the one hand make communication easier than ever before, while on the other hand widening the gulf between those who are 'developed' and those who are not?

Undoubtedly the Afghans must be, by our standards, the best-looking people in the world. They have everything; height, proportions, carriage, features and complexion.

Being must be 'felt' it can not be 'thought.

Leonard Cohen has a way with words and with humor that remind me to lighten up, which I appreciate very much.

You never know what you can do until you have to do it.

Elegance of language must give way before simplicity in preaching sound doctrine.

How marvelous books are, crossing worlds and centuries, defeating ignorance and, finally, cruel time itself.

You don't throw your life away Going Inside You get to know who's watching you And besides you resides in your body

I am not for abortion; nobody is for abortion. I am for your right to make your own hard choices in this world.

Veils of love which was only hate petrified by longing--that was me.

We stand for self-reliance. We hope for foreign aid but cannot be dependent on it; we depend on our own efforts, on the creative power of the whole army and the entire people.

...But listen, there will be more joy in heaven over the tears of a repentant sinner than over the white robes of a hundred just men.