“We cannot enter into alliances until we are acquainted with the designs of our neighbors.”

“we must follow our own path, and sometimes that path can be laden with bumps and curves and rivers to cross. but we cannot block the paths of our neighbors, for that is not our place. we can only seek to groom and shape our own.”

“Sometimes we make our alliances not by the shape and color of our flesh but by the convictions of our heart.”

“We can't have moral obligations to every single person in this world. We have moral obligations to those who we come up against, who enter into our moral space, so to speak. That means neighbors, people we deal with, and so on.”

“We cannot discuss the state of our minorities until we first have a sense of what we are, who we are, what our goals are, and what we take life to be.”

“However self-sufficient we may fancy ourselves, we exist only in relation -- to our friend, family, and life partners; to those we teach and mentor; to our co-workers, neighbors, strangers; and even to forces we cannot fully conceive of, let alone define. In many ways, we are our relationships.”