Winning the Revolutionary War, or the Civil War, or World War II were the turning points in our history, the sine qua non of our forward progress.

It was not well to drive men into final corners; at those moments they could all develop teeth and claws.

World War II, the atomic bomb, the Cold War, made it hard for Americans to continue their optimism.

Just when you think this war has taken everything you loved, you meet someone and realize that somehow you still have more to give.

A not-too-distant explosion shakes the house, the windows rattle in their sockets, and in the next room the class of 1964 wakes up and lets out a yell or two. Each time this happens I find myself thinking, "Is it possible that human beings can continue with this lunacy very much longer?" You know the answer, of course.

War's always the same! Children starve, women suffer, men lose their fortunes or turn into beasts!