I don't feel a lack of hope. It's just disappointment that after all these years we're still fighting meaningless wars for a handful of people.

But I have found that in the simple act of living with hope and in the daily effort to have a positive impact in the world the days I do have are made all the more meaningful and precious. And for that I am grateful.

Destiny is something not be to desired and not to be avoided. a mystery not contrary to reason for it implies that the world and the course of human history have meaning.

Literature is the expression of a feeling of deprivation a recourse against a sense of something missing. But the contrary is also true: language is what makes us human. It is a recourse against the meaningless noise and silence of nature and history.

You had to be aware that I saw that photography was a mere episode in the history of the optical projection and when the chemicals ended meaning the picture was fixed by chemicals we were in a new era.

If a secret history of books could be written and the author's private thoughts and meanings noted down alongside of his story how many insipid volumes would become interesting and dull tales excite the reader!

I believe that history might be and ought to be taught in a new fashion so as to make the meaning of it as a process of evolution intelligible to the young.

Increased revenues meaning higher taxes will be a central element of any successful long-term budget plan and President Obama is right to insist that the wealthy - the slice of America that has come through the recession in by far the best financial health - should provide those funds.

If Obamacare is allowed to stand - and Congress is allowed to make the purchase of government-endorsed health insurance compulsory - there will be no meaningful limit on Washington's reach into the lives of the American people. That is certainly not what the Founders intended.

I believe we can incentivize more affordable health care in general by better regulating insurance and creating meaningful competition for health care services.