Do not doubt your own basic goodness. In spite of all confusion and fear, you are born with a heart that knows what is just, loving, and beautiful.

The heart is like a garden. It can grow compassion or fear, resentment or love. What seeds will you plant there?

If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.

The things that matter most in our lives are not fantastic or grand. They are the moments when we touch one another.

Most of us have spent our lives caught up in plans, expectations, ambitions for the future; in regrets, guilt or shame about the past. To come into the present is to stop the war.

We do not have to improve ourselves; we just have to let go of what blocks our heart.

In the end, just three things matter: How well we have lived How well we have loved How well we have learned to let go

Have respect for yourself, and patience and compassion. With these, you can handle anything.

Let go of the battle. Breathe quietly and let it be. Let your body relax and your heart soften. Open to whatever you experience without fighting.

The basic principle of spiritual life is that our problems become the very place to discover wisdom and love.

To open deeply, as genuine spiritual life requires, we need tremendous courage and strength, a kind of warrior spirit.

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

Your original self is worth more than your imitation of someone else.

One crucial thing to keep in mind as you read any Hebrew narrative is the presence of God in the narrative. In any biblical narrative, God is the ultimate character, the supreme hero of the story.

You can surmount the obstacles in your path if you are determined courageous and hardworking. ... Do not fear to pioneer to venture down new paths of endeavor.

When we are no longer capable of love, we are no longer alive.

My feeling about school was that it interfered with my reading.

The world is not so kind, people trap your mind.

We will continue to spill blood in what is, at bottom, a war of ideas

Let's face it, life is a constant challenge. It's full of unexpected detours that no one but you can navigate.

Understand who you are, so that you can be the same, whether you're talking to a homeless person or the president of the United States. You're the same person.