"Credit or debit cards, for starters, are nothing short of shoppers' Novocain. Even in the age of digital purchases and virtual money, we still attach a special value to dirty paper with pictures of presidents on it. Handing some of that to a cashier simply hurts more than handing over a little sliver of plastic."

"My own life has in some ways been a decades-long tour of the sibling experience. I have full sibs, I have half-sibs, and for a time I had step-sibs."

"The mind of the polyglot is a very particular thing, and scientists are only beginning to look closely at how acquiring a second language influences learning, behavior and the very structure of the brain itself."

"Vaccines save lives fear endangers them. It's a simple message parents need to keep hearing."

"It is a unyielding truth that every season of life has its own unique blossom, if only we take care to notice."

"The stoutest timber is forged in the fiercest gales, not in the sheltered grove. Remember this in moments of decisive trial — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"The highest expression of strength is tenderness toward the vulnerable. Reflect upon this whenever doubt clouds your horizon — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"Wisdom principle 77 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 52."