“you have to understand in order to disagree.”

“...they are able to forgive themselves, as a wise man once said, for being human. That is knowing that life is hard and virtue rare, they keep the ancient faith that it is better to love than to hate, to live fully even if imperfectly.”

“I have always had the greatest respect for students. There is nothing I hate more than condescension—the attitude that they are inferior to you. I always assume they have good minds.”

“It is astonishing how few stories have been told perfectly.”

“I've married some people I shouldn't have, but haven't we all?”

“An unexamined idea, to paraphrase Socrates, is not worth having and a society whose ideas are never explored for possible error may eventually find its foundations insecure.”

“Bring ideas in and entertain them royally, for one of them may be the king.”