“It is in our faults and failings, not in our virtues, that we touch one another and find sympathy. We differ widely enough in our nobler qualities. It is in our follies that we are at one.”

“Life has taught me that it is not for our faults that we are disliked and even hated, but for our qualities.”

“The basis of optimism is sheer terror. We think that we are generous because we credit our neighbour with the possession of those virtues that are likely to be a benefit to us. We praise the banker that we may overdraw our account, and find good qualities in the highwayman in the hope that he may spare our pockets.”

“We know one another's faults, virtues, catastrophes, mortifications, triumphs, rivalries, desires, and how long we can each hang by our hands to a bar. We have been banded together under pack codes and tribal laws.”

“Astonishingly, we are saved not by a special apparatus known as religion, but by the quality of our everyday relations with one another.”

“As we each began our journey, we learned the importance of connecting, of laughing with one another (not at one another), of sharing our lives.”