He sits, strong and blunt as a Celtic cross, Clearly used to silence and an armchair: Tonight the wife and children will be quiet At slammed door and smoker's cough in the hall.

Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for.

Believe that a further shore is reachable from here.

Even if the hopes you started out with are dashed, hope has to be maintained.

Anyone with gumption and a sharp mind will take the measure of two things: what's said and what's done.

I can't think of a case where poems changed the world, but what they do is they change people's understanding of what's going on in the world.

If you have the words, there's always a chance that you'll find the way.

History says, Don’t hope On this side of the grave, But then, once in a lifetime The longed-for tidal wave Of justice can rise up, And hope and history rhyme

Poetry is always slightly mysterious, and you wonder what is your relationship to it.

All I know is a door into the dark

I have begun to think of life as a series of ripples widening out from an original center.

The natural consequence of being connected to the depth, what I call the soul, or your essence, is the attribute of joy.

Where the electron behaves and misbehaves as it will, where the forces tie themselves up into knots of atoms and come united.

Every human action, whether it has become positive or negative, must depend on motivation.

Boldness in battle is nothing out of the way... but to face down fear in cold blood is rare in any man.

Courage means to keep making forward progress while you still feel afraid!

What could be a more Canadian way to indulge in the national preoccupation with perceptions - honest, hilarious, huffy or high-minded - of this country and its inhabitants?

Agency used righteously allows light to dispel the darkness and enables us to live with joy and happiness.

Our world and our state have been transformed, but, in contrast, we as people have not been.

Wake up: all of that 'crack in the street' talk? It's made up, like 'Jack and the Beanstalk.'

My politics just kind of developed over time as a reaction.