“My larger point is that since each of us struggles daily with good and bad impulses, we might want to restructure our social institutions in order to make it a little easier to be good.”

“Republicans don't want to 'save the world'; they want to save the country from those who would 'save the world.”

“They want to be natural, the anti-social little beasts. They just don't realize that everyone's good depends on everyone's cooperation.”

“And knowing what happens on average is a good place to start. By so doing, we insulate ourselves from the tendency to build our thinking - our daily decisions, our laws, our governance - on exceptions and anomalies rather than on reality.”

“In half a century of challenge and learning and trial-and-error, each of us had struggled from hard times to a present lovely beyond our dreams.”

“Leah taught me that the greatest secret of life is that we find exactly what we're looking for. In spite of what happens to us, ultimately we decide whether our lives are good or bad, ugly or beautiful.”

“We all try. And try as we might to control things, sometimes bad things get in and it's not our fault.”