“Any man's life can be seen as a series of engagements with his fathers, Including the surrogates provided by life and literature.”

“Humor and seriousness can be an unstable mix.”

“Depression can seem absurdly self aggrandizing to those who do not experience it, But that does not make it any less painful to those who do.”

“Dominance can be a tempration to division. "There are so many of us, we can afford to fight amongst ourselves.”

“Lincoln learned to summon the passions, but he never addressed his audience as sweethearts.”

“Lincoln loved other people's jokes as much as his own.”

“Lincoln was less well-read than many a professor or journalist, but what he read, he read deeply.”

“Since we never get everything we want or need from our families, we look for sufficiency in surrogates.”

“The lightheaded and the fashionable are always willing to shed tears for distant underdogs.”

“She noticed, as an exceptional woman would, that her stepson was exceptional.”

“Lincoln began to emerge from his funk by helping a coworker who looked up to him out of a funk of his own.”