I was glad to hear of that determination as I detest the practice of cousins marrying or any marriage between persons in which there can be traced the most distant relationship. I go for the improvement instead of the deterioration of our race.

Ships that pass in the night and speak each other in passing only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness So on the ocean of life we pass and speak one another only a look and a voice then darkness again and a silence.

For all their current prestige Osama bin Laden and the suicide bombers are still regarded in all but the most desperate districts of Gaza or Peshawar as romantics with little chance of more than symbolic victories however bloody and brutal. That gives both the Middle East and the West a small and distant hope of security.

It is the around-the-corner brand of hope that prompts people to action while the distant hope acts as an opiate.

Today for the first time in history a Bishop of Rome sets foot on English soil. This fair land once a distant outpost of the pagan world has become through the preaching of the Gospel a beloved and gifted portion of Christ's vineyard.

The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are.

It is for us to pray not for tasks equal to our powers but for powers equal to our tasks to go forward with a great desire forever beating at the door of our hearts as we travel toward our distant goal.

It is hard to feel individually responsible with respect to the invisible processes of a huge and distant government.

All historical experience demonstrates the following: Our earth cannot be changed unless in the not too distant future an alteration in the consciousness of individuals is achieved.

Someday in the distant cyborg future when our internal and external memories fully merge we may come to possess infinite knowledge. But that's not the same thing as wisdom.