“Having a purebred human baby is like having a purebred dog; it's nothing but vanity, human vanity.”

“All choices have consequences,' she said []. 'That doesn't mean we're not free to make them. It's one of the perplexities of the human condition”

“An idea can destroy the mind of a human being, twist it into a dark path of destruction and illness. But only the human can destroy the mind with a bullet to the soul. Ideas do not kill people; they ruin them. People kill people.”

“Who are they, & who am I, that I should live, & they should die?”

“There are many different ways of approaching parenting as there are cultures. However, in non-industrialized cultures, the similarities are also striking. Extended nursing, co-sleeping, carrying the baby in close physical contact, responding promptly to cries or distress, never leaving a baby alone, are all virtually universal in traditional societies that have not become overly "westernized".”

“We can learn to pay attention, concentrate, devote ourselves to authors. We can slow down so we can hear the voice of texts, feel the movement of sentences, experience the pleasure of words--and own passages that speak to us. (p. 41)”

“The more degrees of freedom there are in practice, the wider the discussion and debate can be.”