"Hamlet is so familiar to us because he knows, really knows, that he is his own worst problem."

"Nietzsche once said that before the path can be followed, one must first have found the lantern."

"This particular animal, the human, is the most complex and needs the longest length of protection before it is able to manage on its own."

"The experience of the Middle Passage is not unlike awakening to find that one is alone on a pitching ship, with no port in sight. "

"When we are not alone when we are on our own, then we have achieved solitude."

"When we are depressed we may say we are dispirited; we have lost the energy for the journey..."

“Success, peace, happiness, and distraction — pale before the question of whether or not one experiences this life as meaningful.”