One sentence can carry an essay.

The gap between “something caused the universe” and “that something wants you to fast on Thursdays” is the entire distance.

Nobody jumps off a moral cliff. People walk down a staircase — one reasonable step at a time.

Politeness is not the opposite of discrimination. It is discrimination that has learned manners.

The feeling of having thought hard is not evidence of having thought well.

Nobody warns you about the silence afterwards.

A vote chooses who holds the steering wheel. Where the car goes depends on how many of us keep watching the road.

Calling real fear a disorder can quietly move the problem from the world into someone's head.

When someone gives you a general rule, ask for the kitchen.

An exam measures where you finished, not how far you walked.

The shell was never the crab. The self that changes its mind is the same self, better informed.

A writer's loyalty is not to a language. It is to the thought — and whichever words carry it home.

A belief you have never been allowed to doubt is not really yours yet. It is still in the envelope it arrived in.