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Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.

You are free to give life meaning, whatever meaning you want to give it.

Human beings want to be free and however long they may agree to stay locked up, to stay oppressed, there will come a time when they say 'That's it.' Suddenly they find themselves doing something that they never would have thought they would be doing, simply because of the human instinct that makes them turn their face towards freedom.

For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

This is part of the involuntary bargain we make with the world just by being alive. We get to experiences the splendor of nature, the beauty of art, the balm of love and the sheer joy of existence, always with the knowledge that illness, injury, natural disaster, or pure evil can end it in an instant for ourselves or someone we love.

To return after long years of painful absence to some place which has been the scene of our former joys, and whence the force of circumstance, and not choice, has driven us, is oppressive to the heart.

If we're all living in ourselves and mistaking it for life, then we're devaluing and desensitizing life.

The purpose of life is to be defeated by greater and greater things.

When suffering happens, it forces us to confront life in a different way than we normally do.

We can no longer take our own way of life for granted - we know that it may be challenged. And we know this, too - and know it ever more deeply - we know that freedom and democracy are not just big words mouthed by orators but the rain and the wind and the sun, the air and the light by which we breathe and live.