Life is so hard, how can we be anything but kind?

The heart is like a garden. It can grow compassion or fear, resentment or love. What seeds will you plant there?

If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.

The things that matter most in our lives are not fantastic or grand. They are the moments when we touch one another.

Most of us have spent our lives caught up in plans, expectations, ambitions for the future; in regrets, guilt or shame about the past. To come into the present is to stop the war.

We do not have to improve ourselves; we just have to let go of what blocks our heart.

Do not doubt your own basic goodness. In spite of all confusion and fear, you are born with a heart that knows what is just, loving, and beautiful.

In the end, just three things matter: How well we have lived How well we have loved How well we have learned to let go

Have respect for yourself, and patience and compassion. With these, you can handle anything.

Let go of the battle. Breathe quietly and let it be. Let your body relax and your heart soften. Open to whatever you experience without fighting.

The basic principle of spiritual life is that our problems become the very place to discover wisdom and love.

You can imprison a man, but not an idea. You can exile a man, but not an idea. You can kill a man, but not an idea.

The dark, cold grasp you took on me, has tangled me completely

As an early child, I tried to play every kind of music that I heard. I thought everyone was doing that.

I've never understood why anybody makes a big deal about mansions. It's just a house with more rooms. You still have to face yourself.

Be this thy brazen bulwark, to keep a clear conscience, and never turn pale with guilt.

Let men not ask what the law requires, but give whatever freedom demands.

Famously sunny Los Angeles has long been known as the homeless capital of America, from beachy communities like Santa Monica and Venice to Skid Row downtown.

I think people seem to sort of associate me with danger. And I don't see that at all.

Don't be a jerk. Try to love everyone. Give more than you take. And do it despite the fact that you only really like about seven out of 500 people.

Anytime you start a sentence with 'I am,' you are creating what you are and what you want to be.