It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all___ in which case, you fail by default.

Unlike any other creature on this planet, human beings can learn and understand without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people's places.

Life is not a checklist of acquisition or achievement.

The fears that my parents had had for me, and that i had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard i was the biggest failure i knew.