I've never known about anyone being helped by being told how wretched, miserable, sinful, and evil they are.

I do assert that one prepares for eternity not by being religious and keeping the rules, but by living fully, loving wastefully, and daring to be all that each of us has the capacity to be.

The church is like a swimming pool. Most of the noise comes from the shallow end.

I think one of the things we've got to look out for is human beings claiming that they know how God operates.

The view of the cross as the sacrifice for the sins of the world is a barbarian idea based on primitive concepts of God and must be dismissed.

I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God.

Was Judas Iscariot a figure of history? I do not think so. There is no mention of him in any source before the 8th decade.

All religion seems to need to prove that it's the only truth. And that's where it turns demonic. Because that's when you get religious wars and persecutions and burning heretics at the stake.

I don't want a God that would go around killing people's little girls. Neither do I want a God who would kill his own son.

I prepare for death by living.

You can't have a world where 50 percent of the people are dieting and 50 percent of the people are starving if you want stability.

Love is the name of an irrepressible moment formed inside one complete pulsation of a heart

Receptionist: How do you write women so well?Melvin Udall: I think of a man, and I take away reason and accountability.

The secret to doing anything is believing that you can do it. Anything that you believe you can do strong enough, you can do. Anything. As long as you believe.

Happiness depends on what you can give, not on what you can get.

We face a hostile ideology global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose and insidious in method.

Freedom is the supreme good; freedom from self imposed limitation.

A lot of what's been written about me is not true: of my family history or my choices or my interests. Actually, I've never read anything written about me that was true. It's been completely crazy.

This is the mark of a perfect character - to pass through each day as though it were the last, without agitation, without torpor, and without pretense.

Our senses enable us to perceive only a minute portion of the outside world.

The writer, like a priest, must be exempted from secular labor. His work needs a frolic health; he must be at the top of his condition.