“Sometimes I wonder if a friendship in which the common ground is all that is bad about each person is a friendship worth having.”

“Having contact sheets for all sorts of episodes in your life seemed to me intriguing and desirable. So much of my own history is beclouded by time, but a few sharp rays, in the form of pictures, falling upon a given day would resuscitate whole contexts. And from this archipelago of moments, scenes, episodes, you could see the larger tectonic movements of your life forming and unforming. You would be reminded of who you are. Or at least of who you were.”

“Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.”

“Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations...entangling alliances with none”

“We have to start from the ground up and reconsider what education is. In my language, I'd like to see us educate the soul, and not just the mind. The result would be a person who could be in the world creatively, make good friendships, live in a place he loved, do work that is rewarding, and make a contribution to the community. People say that the word "educate" means to "draw out" a person's potential. But I like the "duc" - part in the middle of it. To be educated is to become a duke, a leader, a person of stature and color, a presence and a character.”

“Love without friendship is like a kite, aloft only when the winds are favorable. Friendship is what gives love its wings.”

“Friendships multiply joys and divide griefs.”