Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace easy taxes and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things.

I just want you to know that when we talk about war we're really talking about peace.

Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war that we know about peace more about killing that we know about living.

Peace is not a relationship of nations. It is a condition of mind brought about by a serenity of soul. Peace is not merely the absence of war. It is also a state of mind. Lasting peace can come only to peaceful people.

It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it.

True patriotism isn't cheap. It's about taking on a fair share of the burden of keeping America going.

Politics is too partisan and sometimes patriotism is cast aside. Patriotism is honor and love of your country and your brothers and sisters. With politics I get the impression that it's all about what's good for the party and not necessarily what's good for the country.

A nation is a society united by a delusion about its ancestry and by common hatred of its neighbours.

Patriot: the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about.

As a young boy I read 'Cheaper by the Dozen' and immediately became neurotic about my use of time. It taxed me severely but only for the next 50 years. But I think it also allowed me to discipline myself to sit in the chair and be a writer where one of the most needed qualities is patience.

My impression is that most women public service workers have a long fuse. Precisely because they care so deeply about services more than anyone they still want to find a sensible and fair negotiated agreement. But their patience has run out.

People ask me a lot about the values I got from playing for the Cubs for so many years. The value I got out of it was patience. A lot of people these days are not very patient.

My mum told me to have patience. It's about realising that when things aren't going the way you want them to or you don't have inspiration it will come.

I have all the patience in the world about Sirens. For me it's not a Grateful Dead project it's a Me project.

I'm hosting weekend retreats all over America. It is like a 24-hour slumber party for moms. We laugh eat play games get massages win prizes talk about parenting and even cry a bit.

For me Twitter works best as a way of taking pictures of being stuck in traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge. If people really want to read really funny quips about life parenting and pop culture then by all means read Michael Ian Black's tweets.

I'm torn about late parenting. I believe people should spend their twenties living and having fun and not having any regrets later. I also think people in their thirties generally make better parents but so many of my friends are having trouble - myself included - as fathers get older.

No I've never wanted kids. But I do read about parenting a lot.

I'm worried about parents who aren't parenting.

No matter how calmly you try to referee parenting will eventually produce bizarre behavior and I'm not talking about the kids. Their behavior is always normal.

It's a great mistake I think to put children off with falsehoods and nonsense when their growing powers of observation and discrimination excite in them a desire to know about things.

The interesting thing about being a mother is that everyone wants pets but no one but me cleans the kitty litter.

Every cliche about kids is true they grow up so quickly you blink and they're gone and you have to spend the time with them now. But that's a joy.

Even as kids reach adolescence they need more than ever for us to watch over them. Adolescence is not about letting go. It's about hanging on during a very bumpy ride.