Most nations, as well as people are impossible only in their youth; they become incorrigible as they grow older.

I undertake the same project as Montaigne, but with an aim contrary to his own: for he wrote his Essays only for others, and I write my reveries only for myself.

Those that are most slow in making a promise are the most faithful in the performance of it.

Remorse sleeps during prosperity but awakes bitter consciousness during adversity.

I'm part of the tribe who have said goodbye to one parent and are feeling a sense of responsibility for the one who remains - in my case, my mother. How do I make her time smoother, happier? How do I try to ease her, a widow, away from the dark well of grief without dishonoring the necessity of that grief?

Nothing is absolute, with the debatable exceptions of this statement and death.

I remember from my father's funeral that the minister kept using a metaphor about life of a prism. And I took that away like a cherished image.

I have already seen death, and I know that death is supporting me in my cause of education. Death does not want to kill me.