Michael Patrick

“The science of government it is my duty to study, more than all other sciences; the arts of legislation and administration and negotiation ought to take the place of, indeed exclude, in a manner, all other arts. I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain.”
― John Adams, Letters of John Adams, Addressed to His Wife

“There's always been a sliver of panic in him, deeply buried, when it comes to his daughter. A fear that he is no good as a father, that he is doing everything wrong. That he never quite understood the rules. All those Parisian mothers pushing buggies through the Jardin des Plantes,or holding up cardigans in department stores, it seemed to him that those women nodded to each other as they passed, as though each possessed some secret knowledge that he did not. How do you ever know for certain that you are doing the right thing? There is pride too, though. Pride that he has done it alone, that his daughter is so curious, so resilient. There is the humility of being a father to someone so powerful, as if he were only a narrow conduit for another, greater thing. That's how it feels right now, he thinks, kneeling beside her, rinsing her hair, as though his love for his daughter will outstrip the limits of his body. The walls could fall away, even the whole city, and brightness of that feeling would not wane.”
― Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See

“Seeing misery everywhere and detesting it, and sincere in wanting to do something about it. Sincere– that was the hell of it. From a distance, one's adversaries seemed fiends, but with a closer view, one saw the sincerity, and it was as great as one's own.”
― Walter M. Miller Jr., A Canticle for Leibowitz

“Savor the little moments, that’s my advice. They’re what life is. All the little things that happen while you’re waiting for something else.”
― Joe Abercrombie, The Heroes