Beethoven's string quartets express pain itself; it is not MY pain.

It's a great event to get outside and enjoy nature. I find it very exciting no matter how many times I see bald eagles.

Look into your own heart, discover what it is that gives you pain and then refuse, under any circumstance whatsoever, to inflict that pain on anybody else.

Jesus did not spend a great deal of time discoursing about the trinity or original sin or the incarnation, which have preoccupied later Christians. He went around doing good and being compassionate.

Each of the world religions has its own particular genius, its own special insight into the nature and requirements of compassion, and has something unique to teach us.

I like silence; I'm a gregarious loner and without the solitude, I lose my gregariousness.

Compassion is not an option. It's the key to our survival.

Religious people often prefer to be right rather than compassionate. Often, they don't want to give up their egotism. They want their religion to endorse their ego, their identity.

Religion isn’t about believing things. It's ethical alchemy. It’s about behaving in a way that changes you, that gives you intimations of holiness and sacredness.

I am not interested in the afterlife. Religion is supposed to be about losing your ego, not preserving it eternally in optimum conditions.

Surely it's better to love others, however messy and imperfect the involvement, than to allow one's capacity for love to harden.

I knew who I was this morning, but I've changed a few times since then.

Suicides? Heart attacks? The papers didn't seem interested. The world was full of ways to die, too many to cover. Newsworthy deaths had to be exceptional. Most people go unobserved.

Grab tightly to the reigns of passion and ride into glory for without it life would be stagnant and you would be a spirit without cause.

You and your ‘potential’, ” I lazily rolled my eyes. “According to you, everyone has it…and no one is living up to it.

Who are we to question God’s decisions about where we’ll be born?…God does what He chooses without asking our opinions. Of that I’m sure.

The structure of software systems tend to reflect the structure of the organization that produce them.

L.A. was never me. Nashville is my home.

We want to create hope for the person ... we must give hope, always hope.

Never stop flying the airplane.

It takes a long time to turn a big country around. Just be of good cheer and keep working on it.