Mom went on to tell me, as we sat there, that she really believed your personal life was personal. Secrets, she felt, rarely explained or excused anything in real life, or were even all that interesting. People shared too much, she said, not too little. She thought you should be able to keep your private life private for any reason or for no reason.

Books have played a role in almost every one of the world’s great civil and human rights movements, but only because people who read them decided to act. Reading brings with it responsibility.

And there’s something you can always tell people who want to learn more about the world and who don’t know how to find a cause to support. You can always tell them to read.

I particularly like that last phrase,” Mom said. “About protecting your own happiness.

He starts to whisper a prayer. “Whatever beings there are, may they be free from suffering. Whatever beings there are, may they be free from enmity. Whatever beings there are, may they be free from hurtfulness. Whatever beings there are, may they be free from ill health. Whatever beings there are, may they be able to protect their own happiness.

Were you sad to leave Cambridge?” I asked her. She was, she said. Very sad. But she was also looking forward to being back in New York. “The world is complicated,” she added. “You don’t have to have one emotion at a time.

Good books often answer questions you didn’t even know you wanted to ask.

Lin Yutang also believed that reading is an art. One chapter of the Importance of Living is devoted to “the Art of Reading.” Lin writes that, “the man who has not the habit of reading is imprisoned in his immediate world, in respect to time and space. His life falls into a set routine; he is limited to contact and conversation with a few friends and acquaintances, and he sees only what happens in his immediate neighborhood.

I read to live. I read for life.

You should tell your family every day that you love them. And make sure they know that you’re proud of them too.