The more I like a book, the more slowly I read. this spontaneous talking back to a book is one of the things that makes reading so valuable.

Rome was a poem pressed into service as a city.

When friends stop being frank and useful to each other, the whole world loses some of its radiance.

It is one of the paradoxes of American literature that our writers are forever looking back with love and nostalgia at lives they couldn't wait to leave.

Peace was declared, but not all of us were drunk with joy or stricken blind.

Those who are at war with others are not at peace with themselves.

Mars has long exerted a pull on the human imagination. The erratically moving red star in the sky was seen as sinister or violent by the ancients: The Greeks identified it with Ares, the god of war; the Babylonians named it after Nergal, god of the underworld. To the ancient Chinese, it was Ying-huo, the fire planet.

Broad-mindedness is related to tolerance; open-mindedness is the sibling of peace.