the separation of church and state grew out of a desire, not so much to protect government from religion, but to protect religion from government.

The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.

I would be the most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.

A finished person is a boring person.

There is a little boy inside the man who is my brother... Oh, how I hated that little boy. And how I love him too.

After all those years as a woman hearing 'not thin enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough, not this enough, not that enough,' almost overnight I woke up one morning and thought, 'I'm enough.'

Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.

There is a lot of talk now about metal detectors and gun control. Both are good things. But they are no more a solution than forks and spoons are a solution to world hunger.

Look back, to slavery, to suffrage, to integration and one thing is clear. Fashions in bigotry come and go. The right thing lasts.

You are the only person alive who has sole custody of your life ... Your entire life ... Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank account, but your soul.

America is a country that seems forever to be toddler or teenager, at those two stages of human development characterized by conflict between autonomy and security.

We ought to walk with God and not for God.

People's lives take them strange places. They do strange things, and... well, sometimes they can't talk about them.

You’re my true north. No compass would point me in any other direction but to you.

He was so good and honest. Why couldn't I love him instead?

The blood is life... and it shall be mine!

If you just look at the data, you are led to believe that things are getting better, rather than worse. That's why the fall is really precipitous, once you hit the ceiling.

We should spend less time ranking children and more time helping them to identify their natural competencies and gifts, and cultivate those.

We're doing Circle of Snakes, we open up with Skin Carver and we are throwing in Skull Forest later on.

Two things reduce prejudice: education and laughter.

Katniss, got that spile?" Finnick asks, snapping me back to reality.