Hugh Mackay American Athlete Quotations

The question is, will we continue to fight what may be a rearguard action to defend universal literacy as a central goal of our education system, or are we bold enough to see what's actually happening to our culture?

Perhaps it's the people whose lives have taken sudden new twists - people who have learned to embrace the creative possibilities of change - who stand the best chance of penetrating life's mysteries.

The underlying message of the Lancet article is that if you want to understand aggressive behaviour in children, look to the social and emotional environment in which they are growing up, and the values they bring to the viewing experience.

I wish we didn't have to own up to a policy deliberately designed to inflict suffering on people who have already been traumatised in the countries from which they've fled.

Recounting their histories, people often sound like interested bystanders to their own lives.

So let's not get carried away by hubris: Australians are no better than anyone else when it comes to occupation of the moral high ground.

Frankly, I'm more worried about the violence we do to ourselves and our children by allowing the media to create an expectation of instant gratification.

Even more worrying is the violence we do to our personal relationships when we let media consume time we might otherwise spend with each other.

Far more people have enjoyed Jane Austen's work on television than will ever read her books.

Despite the availability of cheap and effective contraception, it looks as if we are not as careful in our decisions about reproduction as all the talk of family planning might suggest.

How have we managed to dodge the rather obvious point that happiness only makes sense by contrast with sadness - or perhaps with tedium - and that uncertainty, the very essence of imperfection, is our default position?