I don't think there are many larger lessons to be found in sports.

I find interesting characters or lessons that resonate with people and sometimes I write about them in the sports pages sometimes I write them in a column sometimes in a novel sometimes a play or sometimes in nonfiction. But at the core I always say to myself 'Is there a story here? Is this something people want to read?'

The biggest lesson from Africa was that life's joys come mostly from relationships and friendships not from material things. I saw time and again how much fun Africans had with their families and friends and on the sports fields they laughed all the time.

The biggest thing we get out of it is seeing the kids smile. And hopefully we will also see that the lessons we're teaching - not only the fundamentals of hockey but also the life values - are sinking in.

However far modern science and techniques have fallen short of their inherent possibilities they have taught mankind at least one lesson nothing is impossible.

Save for thee and thy lessons man in society would everywhere sink into a sad compound of the fiend and the wild beast and this fallen world would be as certainly a moral as a natural wilderness.

What if the Soviet intervention was a blessing in disguise? It saved the myth that if the Soviets were not to intervene there would have been some flowering authentic democratic socialism and so on. I'm a little bit more of a pessimist there. I think that the Soviets - it's a very sad lesson - by their intervention saved the myth.

The sad and horrible conclusion is that no one cared that Jews were being murdered... This is the Jewish lesson of the Holocaust and this is the lesson which Auschwitz taught us.

It's easier to write from my own life and it's also more fun. I always write about relationships for instance whether they're romantic relationships friendships encounters... there's always a lesson to be learned from them.

Americanism demands loyalty to the teacher and respect for his lesson.

Gymnastics taught me everything - life lessons responsibility and discipline and respect.

But it's important while we are supporting lessons in respecting others to remember that many of our youngest kids need to learn to respect themselves. You learn your worth from the way you are treated.

I did learn one great lesson from a past relationship and that was to never talk about relationships in print again because I'd rather live my private life than read about it.

Lessons of wisdom have the most power over us when they capture the heart through the groundwork of a story which engages the passions.

I truly believe that everything that we do and everyone that we meet is put in our path for a purpose. There are no accidents we're all teachers - if we're willing to pay attention to the lessons we learn trust our positive instincts and not be afraid to take risks or wait for some miracle to come knocking at our door.

We've certainly learned a lot of lessons from Katrina from Rita. Rita was better than Katrina. We're doing a better job planning. We're closer - more closely aligned with the Department of Defense. These things would be positive things if we were to have another attack.

Sometimes when I listen to fellow progressives I wonder if the only lesson we took away from the '04 elections is that politics is a word game.

The lesson of the last year is this: foreign policy can't be managed through the politics of personality and our President would do well to take note of an observation John F. Kennedy made once he was in office - that all of the world's problems aren't his predecessor's fault.

We discussed politics but we also talked about the importance of hard work personal responsibility living within your means keeping your word. Those lessons stay with you throughout your life.

One lesson you better learn if you want to be in politics is that you never go out on a golf course and beat the President.

The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.

That was my first lesson from Ben-Gurion. Then I saw him making peace and I saw him making war. He mobilized me before the war. The man was a very rare combination between a real intellectual and a born leader. There is a contradiction between the two.

The lessons from the peace process are clear whatever life throws at us our individual responses will be all the stronger for working together and sharing the load.

Because I know about the Holy Land I've taught lessons about the Holy Land all my life and - but you can't bring peace to Israel without giving the Palestinian also peace. And Lebanon and Jordan and Syria as well.