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" The battles after the wars are over can be the toughest; there's no longer the public interest that accompanies, for good and for ill, the start of combat. "

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" Power is not just political. It can be cultural; it can be spiritual. "

" Obama promised a return to competence and confidence and asked the nation to believe again that the government could do big things well. In the end, he got his big thing, a once-in-a-generation revision to the basic social compact, a commitment of health coverage to nearly all Americans. He has yet to prove he can do it well. "

" If you want to humble an empire, it makes sense to maim its cathedrals. They are symbols of its faith, and when they crumple and burn, it tells us we are not so powerful and we can't be safe. "

" As a candidate, Obama disdained the game of politics, a self-conscious contrast to all the tireless political athletes named Clinton. "

" Rand Paul does not like being compared to his father Ron any more than sons named Bush like to dance in their father's shadow, but the crucial difference is that while the Bushes all hail from the relative mainstream of the GOP, the Pauls have an ideological tributary virtually to themselves. "

" It's always been a luxury to be able to hop a plane to Paris, to Venice, to the Grand Canyon. "

" Be bored and see where it takes you, because the imagination's dusty wilderness is worth crossing if you want to sculpt your soul. "

" The real luxury travel of the modern age is not through space; it's through time. "

" After 9/11, whatever the evidence of intelligence failures, many people still saw that attack as almost unimaginable, so brutal and brazen an assault. "

" There's something very Nixonian about the idea of keeping an enemy's list. "

" Pour a liquid out of its container, and it changes shape, fills the space you give it. If you give children a lot of space, it may surprise you where they'll go and the shape they'll take. "

" A runner's stride is not perfectly efficient. "

" In 2001, President George W. Bush was condemned for politicizing science with his decision to limit federal funding for stem-cell research; in 2009 President Obama was praised for reversing it, even though his decision was arguably just as political. "

" Time is valuable; people are busy. "

" Anyone with the right mix of parental paranoia and entrepreneurial moxie can make a fortune by selling parents the equipment we think will keep us one step ahead of our kids. "

" Time dissolves in summer anyway: days are long, weekends longer. Hours get all thin and watery when you are lost in the book you'd never otherwise have time to read. Senses are sharper - something about the moist air and bright light and fruit in season - and so memories stir and startle. "

" I would like to see every newspaper and every magazine have a network of bureaus all over the world, gathering news. "

" Summer is not obligatory. We can start an infernally hard jigsaw puzzle in June with the knowledge that, if there are enough rainy days, we may just finish it by Labor Day, but if not, there's no harm, no penalty. We may have better things to do. "

" Emotional life grows out of an area of the brain called the limbic system, specifically the amygdala, whence come delight and disgust and fear and anger. "

" Some people are born strong or stretchy, or with a tungsten will. "

" A president can't go to every memorial service. "

" Twenty-first century war adds new risks: more and more often there are no front lines, no central command, no rules of engagement - only a chaotic collision of politics, power, faith and bloodlust. Victims are as likely to be civilians as soldiers. "

" Our children will outwit us if they want; for when it comes to technology, they hold the higher ground. Unlike other tools passed carefully and ceremonially from one generation to the next - the sharp scissors, the car keys - this is one they understand better than we do. "

" The leading cause of death for girls 15 to 19 worldwide is not accident or violence or disease; it is complications from pregnancy. Girls under 15 are up to five times as likely to die while having children than are women in their 20s, and their babies are more likely to die as well. "

" On a normal day, we value heroism because it is uncommon. On Sept. 11, we valued heroism because it was everywhere. "

" In many parts of the world, more people have access to a mobile device than to a toilet or running water. "

" Making distinctions is part of learning. So is making mistakes. "

Making Mistakes

" Adolescence, that swampy zone between safety and power, is best patrolled by adults armed with sense and mercy, not guns and a badge. "

" Terror works like a musical composition, so many instruments, all in tune, playing perfectly together to create their desired effect. Sorrow and horror and fear. "

" Pain is the most private experience, but its causes, whether natural or man-made, demand public accounting. "