"I believe history will come to view 9/11 as an event on par with November 22, 1963, the date on which John F. Kennedy was murdered, cutting short a presidency that was growing ever more promising. Dreams died that day in Dallas it is easy to imagine the 1960s turning out rather differently had President Kennedy lived."

"The traditional religious right's failure to restore public-school prayer or pass an antiabortion constitutional amendment has likely helped fuel the spread of the more extreme dominionist school."

"The attacks of September 11 - and subsequent acts of terror from London to Madrid to Fort Hood, Texas - embody the most repulsive of human instincts, the will to power at the price of the lives of others."

"A globalized world is by now a familiar fact of life. Building walls or moats may sound appealing, but the future belongs to those who tend to their people and then boldly engage the rest of the world, near and far."

"It is a subtle truth that where compassion abides, fear and resentment lose their dominion — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"Most of us have far more courage than we ever dreamed we possessed."

"A coward is incapable of exhibiting love it is the prerogative of the brave."

"The greatest journey starts when courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it."