Quotes from Lawrence Wright

Reverence for Life affords me my fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, assisting and enhancing life, and that to destroy, to harm or to hinder life is evil.

Indeed, it's an irony that the figure who most embodies the values people associate with the state is a narcissistic Manhattan billionaire now sitting in the Oval Office.

It is well to learn the ethnic backgrounds of your parents, to love and cherish the ancient folklore. But never, never forget, you are an American first. And millions of Americans before you have fought for your freedom. The Nation holds all the terms of our endearment. Support, defend and honor those whose duty it is to keep it safe.

With more than a million Texans licensed to carry handguns, the state is actually far behind Florida, with 1.7 million. I'm EMBARRASSED, Governor Greg Abbott tweeted in 2015; Texas #2 in nation for new gun purchases, behind CALIFORNIA. Let's pick up the pace Texans. @NRA

She confided to Eltringham that she wanted to kill herself in order to stop the suppressive body thetans from taking over her mind.

As it turned out, the canister was filled with a substance called red mercury—also known as cinnabar—that physically resembles uranium oxide although chemically it is quite different. Red mercury has been used in nuclear scams for more than twenty-five years.

There in the course of one hour, a little elderly woman who embodied the spirit of nonviolence single-handedly prevented loss of life, and a preppie young man with fast fists flying also prevented violence. I would not presume to judge who was doing the will of God on that snowy February afternoon.

That's what the movement was all about. It was not to destroy anyone. It was to redeem, to save, to convert. It was to change people's attitudes, their positions, their hearts. That's what Dr. King spoke of—redeeming the soul of America, creating the beloved community.

The same year Qutb was hanged, Zawahiri helped to form an underground militant cell dedicated to replacing the secular Egyptian government with an Islamic one. He was fifteen years old.

Reverence for Life," he wrote. Ethics, Schweitzer decided, was nothing more than that. "Reverence for Life affords me my fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, assisting and enhancing life, and that to destroy, to harm or to hinder life is evil.

In 1931, when Anwar was twelve, Mahatma Gandhi passed through the Suez Canal on his way to London to negotiate the fate of India. The ship stopped in Port Said, whereupon Egyptian journalists besieged the ascetic leader. The correspondent for Al-Ahram marveled that Gandhi was wearing "nothing but a scrap of cloth worth five piasters, wire rim glasses worth three piasters

The example of this poor, dark-skinned man who turned the empire upside-down made a deep impression on the young Sadat. "I began to imitate him," he writes. "I took off all my clothes, covered myself from the waist down with an apron, made myself a spindle, and withdrew to a solitary nook on the roof of our house in Cairo.