What makes defeat so painful is just the awareness that the other has won. It hurts to lose because it feels so good to win.

In our lives a dog is a dog rather than a former wolf, and it surely is not a cat, a difference that means an enormous amount to some people.

The earth is, of course, not the geometric center of the universe. But it is certainly the center of our lives.

The great virtue, I think, of studying Aristotle - and, more importantly, taking him seriously as a possible teacher - is that he presents an alternative view of both science and the world.

Postmodernism - and is that term used much any more? - is simply a reiteration of the sophistic or the rhetorical worldview.

Certain things, they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone.

Learn from seeds to rise, no matter how much dirt is thrown at you.

And the past held only this wisdom: that love was a damaging mistake, and its accomplice, hope, a treacherous illusion.

When a great moment arises, it is great to be right there!

If it’s the benefit to myself that drives my decisions, I can know that I’m driving down a long road with a short bridge.

... there are shadows because there are hills.

It's not a real name," she says. "Not one that he's carried with him always. It's one he wears like his hat. So he can take it off if he wants.

All our afflictions, all our temptations are to make heaven more desirable, and earth more loathsome.

Let's let people live their lives and do it the way they want to do it.

I like to do things that are surprising and different.