Yes, well, people are very good at destroying things, good things.

But war had a taming effect

What he wanted to say was that two thousand years of peace could be undone in a month of war.

An entire lifetime can change in one afternoon. The rest of the world can continue on, unaware of a quiet, solitary cataclysm occurring a few feet away.

To be around family is to feel the possibility of growing roots again.

He believes that people have destroyed religion and religion has destroyed people. He says he believes in God, but he doesn't believe in people.

What is gone is gone and will not come back. When the earth swallows, it swallows forever and we are left to stumble along feeling the absences. These are our burdens.

We all cross a hundred peaks to get even this far. And there will be more before we each make it to whatever God has fated for us.

Cornered mothers pray for strange things.

The elderly become invisible sooner than we would hope.

Can a mother commit a greater sin than ignoring her intuitions?

Lena knew she had spent too much of her life in a state of passive dread, just waiting for something bad to happen. In a life like that, relief was as close as you got to happiness.

Some old wounds never truly heal, and bleed again at the slightest word.

If they are gods, why do you lament them? If you lament them, you must no longer regard them as gods.

We know that the Zanj (blacks) are the least intelligent and the least discerning of mankind, and the least capable of understanding the consequences of actions.

May all your dreams but one come true, for what is life without a dream?

If you date, you will meet your share of weirdos and jerks. That is as sure as death and taxes.

As a child I was not interested in science. I was merely interested in things human, the human side of nature, if you like, and I continue to be interested in that. That's what motivates me.

What I'm doing right now, I'm chasing perfection... and if I don't get it, I'm going to get this close.

Friday is my night for letting my hair down, and once a month a group of my old male friends will come down and stay at our house in Hampshire.

If we feel secure In the depths of our heart, We shall not challenge anybody, For inner confidence Is nothing short of Complete satisfaction.