"California, the department-store state. The most of everything and the best of nothing."

“History will remember Nelson Mandela as a champion for human dignity and freedom, for peace and reconciliation”

“Books can make a difference in dispelling prejudice and building community: not with role models and recipes, not with noble messages about the human family, but with enthralling stories that make us imagine the lives of others. A good story lets you know people as individuals in all their particularity and conflict; and once you see someone as a person-flawed, complex, striving-you've reached beyond stereotype.”

Source : Hazel Rochman (1993). “Against Borders: Promoting Books for a Multicultural World”, Chicago : American Library Association

“God forgive us-but most of us grew up to be the sort of men our mothers warned us against.”

“And now the end is near And so I face the final curtain, My friends, I'll say it clear, I'll state my case of which I'm certain. I've lived a life that's full, I've travelled each and evr'y highway And more, much more than this, I did it my way.”

Source : My Way (1969 song; music by Claude Fran‡ois and Jacques Revaux)

“Here is the boy, drowning.”

“Keep a definite goal of achievement constantly in view. Realize that work well and worthily done makes life truly worth living.”

“As a man, there's a part of me that feels I should still be going out and doing a proper day's work.”

“His heart is a desert island.... The whole scope, the whole energy of his mind surround and protect him; his depths isolate him and guard him against the truth. He flatters himself that he is entirely alone there.... Patience, dear lady. Perhaps, one day, he will discover some footprint on the sand.... What holy and happy terror, what salutary fright, once he recognizes in that pure sign of grace that his island is mysteriously inhabited!...”