Finally, he said to himself that it was a necessity, that his destiny was so fixed, that it was not for him to derange the arrangements of God, that at all events he must choose, either virtue without, and abomination within, or sanctity within, and infamy without.

Life is full of 'ifs,' Robert. What is important is what we do with what is.

In things that are "below him," man has freedom in Luther's view to act as he sees fit. In things "above," however, the matter is different; there we encounter the problem of God's predestination.

Coincidences are spiritual puns.

If you don't find a leader, perhaps it is because you were meant to lead.

Oh no, no, a state that adopts Common Core must adopt in its totality the Common Core and can only add 15 percent." It was then that I realized that this initiative, which had been constantly portrayed as state led and voluntary, was really about control.

Why? Why indeed. It was a sticky, impossible question and I didn't know how to answer it. How far back did I have to go to find the place where our roads diverged? How could I explain that sometimes a thousand little things added up to something so big it had the power to crush a relationship.

Dying seems less sad than having lived too little.

All of which is only to explain how I came by a piece of equipment that most writers have to acquire one way or another: an unusual tolerance, even a preference, for instability. Not that they don't suffer from being unsure of next year's plans or this month's rent. They do. But, unlike many people, they can live with it.

A journey - whether it's to the corner grocery or through life - is supposed to have a beginning, middle, and end, right? Well, the road is not like that at all. It's the very illogic and the juxtaposed differences of the road - combined with our search for meaning - that make travel so addictive.

American travel seems to need an advocate.

Having lived his life in the belief that something great could be just around every corner, did he realize for the first time that no more corners could be turned?