I had been a journalist in Europe and then went to divinity school in the early 1990s, and came out as somebody who had the perspective of a journalist and was now also theologically educated.

Intelligence alone does not get us where we need to go or even necessarily where we want to go. For that, the human creature must exercise harder-won capacities of wisdom, and wise action.

Compassion is a piece of vocabulary that could change us if we truly let it sink into the standards to which we hold ourselves and others.

The things that go wrong for you have a lot of potential to become part of your gift to the world.

You are not going to be perfect every day. It’s about turning up the next day and doing it again.

Silence is an endangered quantity in our time... Silence, embraced, stuns with its presence, its pregnant reality—a reality that does not negate reason and argument, but puts them in their place.

I dont accept the idea that there are two sides to any issue. I think that the middle ground is to be found within most of us.

You can disagree with another person's opinions. You can disagree with their doctrines. You can't disagree with their experience.

What a liberating thing to realize that our problems are probably our richest sources for rising to the ultimate virtue of compassion.

Compassion is a spiritual technology.

How we carry what has gone wrong for us is essential to being at home in ourselves, and present to the world with all of its failings.

Louis Armstrong is the master of the jazz solo. He became the beacon, the light in the tower, that helped the rest of us navigate the tricky waters of jazz improvisation.

The natural barriers between England and Scotland were not sufficient to prevent the extension of the Saxon settlements and kingdoms across the border.

I came back to my original wife. I came back to her after I made a few boo-boos in my life. Coming back to her was good for me, good for her and good for the children.

What's unique about Washington is that no one's from here. Almost everybody came here to change the world, to make a difference.

We write because we believe the human spirit cannot be tamed and should not be trained.

Man becomes a slave to his constantly repeated acts. What he at first chooses, at last compels.

If I had my life to live over... I wouldn't have time.

I know where I'm supposed to be at the time of the snap. Now, where the play dictates I'm going to go is a different story.

O, here Will I set up my everlasting rest And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars From the world-wearied flesh

Refugee problems can only be solved in the region (of origin) - maybe with a little help from the UN. Governments must provide something for their countries. They need to deliver.