The nation was not founded by habitual groupthinkers. But it stands a fair chance of being destroyed by them.

Hope is essential to any political struggle for radical change when the overall social climate promotes disillusionment and despair.

For anyone worn down, The Impossible Will Take a Little While is a bracing double cappuccino.

Considering the absence of legal coercion, the surprising thing is that men have for so long, and, on the whole, so reliably, adhered to what we might call the breadwinner ethic.

Exercise is the yuppie version of bulimia.

No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.

The 'working poor,' as they are approvingly termed, are in fact the major philanthropists of our society.

There is a vast difference between positive thinking and existential courage.

No one should be incarcerated for debt or squeezed for money they have no chance of getting their hands on.

Poverty is not a character failing or a lack of motivation. Poverty is a shortage of money.

Personally, I can't see why it would be any less romantic to find a husband in a nice four-color catalogue than in the average downtown bar at happy hour.

You have to learn to love yourself. How can others appreciate what you have to offer if you don’t value yourself?

I have always supported measures and principles and not men.

You can't touch love, but you can feel the sweetness that it pours into everything.

Your real, new self (which is Christ's and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him.

The temple of truth is built indeed of stones of crystal, but, inasmuch as men have been concerned in rearing it, it has been consolidated by a cement composed of baser materials.

In Ireland we have a very old saying, When you can see the mountains it's going to rain and when you can't see the mountains it's raining.

I can't stand family secrets. I think they're such a toxic thing and they always leak out.

I'm still very blunt: If you want to be a writer, get a day job. The fact that I have actually been able to make a living at it is astonishing.

The secret is to write just anything, to dare to write just anything, because when you write just anything, you begin to say what is important.

It may be proper to observe, that I had now passed the utmost frontier of the white settlements on that border.