Compassion makes no distinction between friends and enemies, neighbors and outsiders, compatriots and foreigners. Compassion is the gate to human community.

Darkness deserves gratitude. It is the alleluia point at which we learn to understand that all growth does not take place in the sunlight.

Beware the religion that turns you against another one. It's unlikely that it's really religion at all.

Hope is not a matter of waiting for things outside of us to get better. It is about getting better inside about what is going on outside.

We talk religion in a world that worships the bread but does not distribute it, that practices ritual rather than righteousness, that confesses but does not repent.

Grief is a sign that we loved something more than ourselves. . . . Grief makes us worthy to suffer with the rest of the world.

When souls really touch, it is forever. Then space and time disappear, and all that remains is the consciousness that we are not alone in life.

Compassion is not sympathy. Compassion is mercy. It is a commitment to take responsibility for the suffering of others.

Oppressors do not get to be oppressors in a single sweep. They manage it because little by little, we make them that. We overlook too much in the beginning and wonder why we lost control in the end.

Compassion is the ability to understand how difficult it is for people to be the best of what they want to be at all times.

An authentic spirituality does not cater to culture; it calls culture to accountability.

...the only difference between a young person at the height of their exuberance and a very old person who is frail and physically wasted is time.

Logic doesn't overcome pain.

Creativity is an inherent ability that cannot be taught, only developed.

I love what I'm doing. But I love the USA more. And I can straighten it out. And I can truly make this country great again and nobody else can do what I do.

Soul, a particle of God, is blessed with the gift of creative imagination, which finds a solution for every problem.

Once you think a thought, it is extremely difficult to unthink it.

All men have the stars, but they are not the same things for different people.

The whole idea of a public education was to train young people about how our system of government works, so they could be good citizens and be part of it. We're not doing that today.

For so many centuries women have been suppressed and regarded as inferior. And that of course is not right at all, that we all have buddha-nature - so what's the difference?