Her characters tend to err when they reject the grubby and complex circumstances of everyday life for abstract and radical notions. They thrive when they work within the rooted spot, the concrete habit, the particular reality of their town and family.

[T]he road to character is built by confronting your own weakness.

If colleges are going to justify themselves, they are going to have to thrive at those things that require physical proximity. That includes moral and spiritual development. Very few of us cultivate our souls as hermits. We do it through small groups and relationships and in social contexts.

The struggle against the weakness in yourself is never a solitary struggle. No person can achieve self-mastery or his or her own.

Friendship allows you to see your own life but with a second sympathetic self.

You can't counter a heroic impulse with a mundane and bourgeois response. You can counter it only with a more compelling heroic vision.

Students are taught how to do things, but many are not forced to reflect on why they should do them or what we are here for.

They finally achieve a sort of outward-facing union.

Friends usually bring out better versions of each other. People feel unguarded and fluid with their close friends.