Hope grows in us, despite our moments of darkness, regardless of our regular bouts of depression.

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.

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

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.

If you can't change your fate, change your attitude.

Depriving someone of their freedom is the most despicable act imaginable. Anyone guilty of it should be BURIED so they can rot and be reincarnated as roses.

Ryan rolled his eyes. "Harper, you and David Stark have been circling each other since kindergarden.

Have you ever seen a god laugh? It makes you catch your breath and feel hopeful and shivery and excited all at the same time. That's how it was watching Cal.

If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.

Sometimes you have to say, 'Today's just not my day.

America has an ability to try to make some things happen that other countries don't necessarily have.

He frowns. "A dance with the carnivorous Felicity? Why? Has she eaten all the other available gentlemen?

Donald Trump is in a partisan election, so he views the role differently than Mitch Landrieu and I who are are trying to lead our cities in a bipartisan or nonpartisan manner.

They say President Wilson has blundered. Perhaps he has, but I notice he usually blunders forward.