Recollection is the only paradise from which we cannot be turned out.

Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out of Paradise, because of impatience we cannot return.

We cannot kill or capture our way out of an industrial-strength insurgency.

We learn our virtues from our friends who love us; our faults from the enemy who hates us. We cannot easily discover our real character from a friend. He is a mirror, on which the warmth of our breath impedes the clearness of the reflection.

We cannot wish for that we know not.

The only thing that we cannot control is our supporters.