Will Schwalbe

The idea is that if you practice the Naikan part of Constructive Living, life becomes a series of small miracles, and you may start to notice everything that goes right in a typical life and not the few things that go wrong.

Trust is all about instinct. If you had all the facts, you wouldn't need trust. Trust is what is required in the absence of proof. But I believe you can strengthen your instincts by testing them; every time you prove yourself right or wrong, they grow stronger.

One of Mom's favorite passages from Gilead was: "This is an important thing, which I have told many people, and which my father told me, and which his father told him. When you encounter another person, when you have dealings with anyone at all, it is as if a question is being put to you. So you must think, what is the Lord asking of me in this moment, in this situation?

I think it's because it shows that people--or hobbits, as the case may be--can find strength they didn't know they had.

It was the women of afghanistan,my mother believed,who-once they__ been granted access to books and education- would be the salvation of the country

Reading and naps, two of life's greatest pleasures, go especially well together.

Good books often answer questions you didn't even know you wanted to ask

That's one of the amazing things great books like this do - they don't just get you to see the world differently, they get you to look at people, the people all around you, differently.

It__ cruelty that gets to me. Still, it__ important to read about cruelty.__hy is it important?_ Because when you read about it, it__ easier to recognize. That was always the hardest thing in the refugee camps__o hear the stories of the people who had been raped or mutilated or forced to watch a parent or a sister or a child be raped or killed. It__ very hard to come face-to-face with such cruelty. But people can be cruel in lots of ways, some very subtle. I think that__ why we all need to read about it. I think that__ one of the amazing things about Tennessee Williams__ plays. He was so attuned to cruelty__he way Stanley treats Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire. It starts with asides and looks and put-downs. There are so many great examples from Shakespeare__hen Goneril torments King Lear or the way Iago speaks to Othello. And what I love about Dickens is the way he presents all types of cruelty. You need to learn to recognize these things right from the start. Evil almost always starts with small cruelties.

The Need to Read"Reading books remains one of the best ways to engage with the world, become a better person and understand life__ questions, big and small.

And there's something you can always tell people who want to learn more about the world and who don't know how to find a cause to support. You can always tell them to read.

If our family was an airline, Mom was the hub and we were the spokes. You rarely went anywhere nonstop; you went via Mom, who directed the traffic flow and determined the priorities: which family member was cleared for takeoff or landing. Even my father was not immune to Mom's scheduling, though he was given more leeway than the rest of us.

The greatest gift you can give anyone is your undivided attention...

Good books often answer questions you didn't even know you wanted to ask.

The thing about Americans,_ she said, __s that you__e very concerned about everything all the time.

If I'd waited until I was well rested to read, I never would have read anything.

Oh, dear--did I forget to mention that you can, indeed, have it all, but you need a lot of help!

books are the most powerful tool in the human arsenal, that reading all kinds of books, in whatever format you choose - electronic (even though that wasn't for her) or printed, or audio - is the grandest entertainment, and also is how you take part in human conversation.