To be in Florence is to reflect on Europe's intricate diversity - and its lost creativity.

Nuclear proliferation - the proliferation of WMDs altogether - is one of the greatest dangers of our time.

The key to the survival of liberty in the modern world is the embrace of multiple identities.

Europe is a woman, now middle-aged, who has already had a number of heart attacks and is currently experiencing the biggest health crisis of her life, but one that need not be fatal.

There is already a generation of European graduates who feel they have been robbed of the better future they were led to expect. They are members of a new class: the precariat.

Yet another thing Canadians and Europeans have in common is an obsession with the United States, and with distinguishing themselves from it, often by crude stereotyping.

The Eurozone has clearly gone spectacularly wrong, pulling down all the continental economies.

Europe's biggest problem is its success.

But transitions from the politics of violence to democratic compromise are always messy.

A central claim of the Bush administration's foreign policy is that the spread of democracy in the Middle East is the cure for terrorism.

I love this country, but the union jack leaves me cold.

A good story cannot be devised

The average Harvard freshman in 1952 would have placed in the bottom 10 percent of the incoming class by 1960.

Going up the mast is one of the most dangerous things you can do as a solo sailor.

Sometimes the only difference between those who attain and those who don't is perseverance.

I'm not even aware of my success. Success is such an illusion.

From the earliest wars of men to our last heart-breaking worldwide effort, all we could do was kill ourselves. Now we are able to kill the future.

Revenge is the raging fire that consumes the arsonist.

Get into the habit of saying, ''Speak, Lord,'' and life will become a romance.

Not everyone will be happy when you begin to better yourself. Those who are for you will not just celebrate in your triumphs, but they will also pray with you through your tribulations.

When there's no turning back, your instincts will lead you forward.