“Each day we stood almost shoulder to shoulder, occupying the same space, breathing the same air, but we remained strangers.”

“We move through our days with the comfort of familiarity, waking at the same time each morning and almost always the same way...”

“And most of all we smile at each other as if we can't believe how happy we feel just being together just breathing in the same space.”

“It’s a strange feeling, praying into your hands, filling the air between them with words. We think of divinity as something infinitely big, but it is also infinitely small — the condensation of your breath on your palms, the ridges in your fingertips, the warm space between your shoulder and the shoulder next to you.”

“And if we succeed... If we somehow accomplish this thing that seems so impossible, it will be the most glorious victory imaginable. The Fourth of July will no longer be known only as an American holiday, but as the day when all the nations of the earth stood shoulder to shoulder and shouted: 'We will not lay down and die. We will live on! We will survive!' Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!”

“But passion and pride rarely occupy the same space.”