"In known history, nobody has had such capacity for altering the universe than the people of the United States of America. And nobody has gone about it in such an aggressive way."

"Some believe all that parents, tutors, and kindred believe. They take their principles by inheritance, and defend them as they would their estates, because they are born heirs to them."

"Faith is a state of openness or trust."

"How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself anything less than a god."

"To speak the truth in a season of deceit is an act of supreme bravery. In this truth lies the bedrock of all virtue."

"We do not remember the passing of hours, but the resonance of moments. A lesson woven into the fabric of human history — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"Do not wait for favorable winds; take the oars and row toward your horizon. Such is the immutable nature of understanding — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"When I meet people who say - which they do all of the time - 'I must just tell you, my great aunt had cancer of the elbow and the doctors gave her 10 seconds to live, but last I heard she was climbing Mount Everest,' and so forth, I switch off quite early."