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

Runners exalt the marathon as a public test of private will, when months or years of solitary training, early mornings, lost weekends, rain and pain mature into triumph or surrender. That's one reason the race-day crowds matter, the friends who come to cheer and stomp and flap their signs and push the runners on.

Calling Rand Paul 'the most interesting man in politics' is an invitation to an argument - but one we suspect he'd love to have.

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.

All great rebellions are born of private acts of civil disobedience that inspire rebel bands to plot together.

The Ely Experience: 'Private Morals and Public Truth'