Pain is an interesting and off-putting thing. Few if any things in life concentrate our attention so completely and terribly, and few things are more boring to listen to or read about.

As for the depiction of the Catholic church, it's not meant to be a prediction

It occurs to me that our survival may depend upon our talking to one another.

The Great Change is when humankind accepts its role as part of the natural order of the universe instead of its role as a cancer

Words are the only bullets in truth's bandolier. And poets are the snipers.

If everyone could understand the working of a psychopath's mind, we undoubtedly would be closer to insanity ourselves.

Nobody gets beyond a petroleum economy. Not while there's petroleum there.

Seduction... was both a science and art - a blend of skill, discipline, proximity, and opportunity. Mostly proximity.

Poets are the mad midwives to reality. They see not what is, nor what can be, but what must become.

History viewed from the inside is always a dark, digestive mess, far different from the easily recognizable cow viewed from afar by historians.

The shortest route to courage is absolute ignorance.

Wenn man noch nicht den Menschen dienen kann, wie sollte man den Geistern dienen können?

If we want people to accept us as we are, then we should accord the same courtesy to them

The essence of the Dharma (the teachings of the Buddha) is about identifying the cause of our suffering & alleviating it.

Having two women—one who can’t know about the other, and one who must be trusted not to destroy his life—is clearly difficult for him.

An angry father is most cruel towards himself.

Grace is alive, living waters. If I dam up the grace, hold the blessings tight, joy within dies... waters that have no life.

David Roberts, who is a writer at Vox who I like, had a line about the voter - your voters weren't locked in the room with you, Republican establishment. You were locked in the room with them.

Your level of performance matches your dominant self image.

Computer languages differ not so much in what they make possible, but in what they make easy.

Management and union may be likened to that serpent of the fables who on one body had two heads that fighting each other with poisoned fangs, killed themselves.