“Question the answers, I repeated every class. Reevaluate your conclusions when the evidence changes.”

“Long distance is hard. You have to trust that as you each change on your own, your relationship will also change along with you. It takes hope, good humor, and idealism. It takes a massive dose of courage to protect the relationship at all odds. It is hard, but worth it. You'll both be stronger as a result.”

“Your heart I take in mine. Whatever is in your heart shall be in mine, whatever is in mine shall be in yours. Our hearts shall be one, our minds shall be one. May God make us one.”

“Keep me in your heart and know that however great the distance, I am with you always.”

“I wanted that future officer to weigh decisions with a supple mind and to be comfortable with nuance and uncertainty. ”

“An interesting life," Yingling told me, "is one filled with controversial successes punctuated by occasional and spectacular failures.”

“The best thing we could have done for Afghanistan was to get out of our Humvees and drink more green chai. We should have focused less on finding the enemy, and more on finding our friends.”