Life always comes out of death. The present rises from the ashes of the past. The future is always possible for those who are willing to re-create it.

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.

We are products of their weaknesses or strengths.

Lust was edging confusion for the lead. Good sense had fallen far behind.

Be careful what you get good at doin', cuz you'll be doin' it for the rest of your life.

The worst state of affairs is when science begins to concern itself with art.

The man of the future may, and even must, do things impossible in the past and acquire new motor variations not given by heredity.

And malt does more than Milton can to justify God's ways to man.

I really love good food occasionally, but I need time to enjoy it and I need to be hungry.

I would rather die on my feet than continue living on my knees.

I am not a princess, I don't want to be referred to as a princess - I find that super creepy.

Wisdom is your perspective on life, your sense of balance, your understanding of how the various parts and principles apply and relate to each other.