Having the right to show up and speak are basic to survival, to dignity, and to liberty.

There is no one as dangerous as he or she who has nothing to lose.

Leave the door open for the unknown, the door into the dark. That’s where the most important things come from, where you yourself came from, and where you will go.

A book is a heart that only beats in the chest of another.

To be hopeful means to be uncertain about the future, to be tender toward possibilities, to be dedicated to change all the way down to the bottom of your heart.

Worry is a way to pretend that you have knowledge or control over what you don't--and it surprises me, even in myself, how much we prefer ugly scenarios to the pure unknown.

Joy doesn't betray but sustains activism. And when you face a politics that aspires to make you fearful, alienated and isolated, joy is a fine initial act of insurrection.

Politics is pervasive. Everything is political and the choice to be "apolitical" is usually just an endorsement of the status quo and the unexamined life.

Memory, even in the rest of us, is a shifting, fading, partial thing, a net that doesn't catch all the fish by any means and sometimes catches butterflies that don't exist.

Every minute of every hour of every day you are making the world, just as you are making yourself, and you might as well do it with generosity and kindness and style.

Revolution is as unpredictable as an earthquake and as beautiful as spring. Its coming is always a surprise, but its nature should not be.

You wouldn't have won if we'd beaten you.

Upstart greatness is everywhere less respected than ancient greatness.

The most underutilized resource in all of health care is the patient.

One of our forefathers must have read a forbidden book.

If you loved someone, you loved him, and when you had nothing else to give, you still gave him love.

I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite - only a sense of existence. Well, anything for variety.

In order to reflect, think and plan, you must quiet yourself. You can't see your reflection in churning waters. Water must be still to see your reflection.

They chose me for Lawrence of Arabia because I spoke English, had black hair, black eyes and a moustache. It was all luck.

To get a great idea, come up with lots of them.