Heroes are never perfect, but they're brave, they're authentic, they're courageous, determined, discreet, and they've got grit.

The world in which you were born is just one model of reality. Other cultures are not failed attempts at being you; they are unique manifestations of the human spirit.

A language is not just a body of vocabulary or a set of grammatical rules. ... Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind.

The measure of a society is not only what it does but the quality of its aspirations.

The surface of the Earth itself is an immense loom upon which the sun weaves the fabric of existence.

What is science but the pursuit of the truth? What is Buddhism but 2500 years of observation as to the nature of mind?

Risk discomfort and solitude for understanding.

Its haunting to realize that half of the languages of the world are teetering on the brink of extinction.

Language is an old-growth forest of the mind.

All cultures through all time have constantly been engaged in a dance with new possibilities for life. Change is the one constant in human history.

You know, once something freezes, it's solid. That's the key to the arctic - they didn't fear the cold, they made use of it.

Opportunity will not only knock on the door when you are ready, it will stand just next to the door to open it.

I’m just here to remind you that every human life is a bold and delicate projection of the eternal into the temporal.

Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence.

Some songs come from my head, some from my throat, but there will always be moments when it is an injection of the soul.

Working with people on a field turns me on.

I have said explicitly from day one when I announced this policy in, I believe, November of 2011, that I and our government oppose the idea of banning the wearing of the niqab in public.

Every hour you sit at work increases your mortality 11 percent. Think about that.

That religion may have served some necessary function for us in the past does not preclude the possibility that it is now the greatest impediment to our building a global civilization.

Above the forest of the parakeets, A parakeet of parakeets prevails, A pip of life amid a mort of tails.