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Religion is an illusion, and it derives its strength from its readiness to fit in with our instinctual wishful impulses.

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I would rather think of life as a good book. The further you get into it, the more it begins to come together and make sense.

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I am convinced that it is not the fear of death, of our lives ending that haunts our sleep so much as the fear ... that as far as the world is concerned, we might as well never have lived.

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Everything that God created is potentially holy, and our task as humans is to find that holiness in seemingly unholy situations. When we can do this, we will have learned to nurture our souls.

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Caring about others, running the risk of feeling, and leaving an impact on people, brings happiness.

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We are here to change the world with small acts of thoughtfulness done daily rather than with one great breakthrough.

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The human language is like a cracked kettle on which we beat out a tune for a dancing bear, when we hope with our music to move the stars.

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Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.

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America, meaning mostly the United States, is not an easy concept to comprehend. It may be appropriate that it was discovered by a Genoese sailor, in the service of the Spanish crown, looking for some place else and that, for the next half-century, it was treated as a geological impediment to be gotten through or around in order to reach some far more profitable other side.

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There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.

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