Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor; the enemy of the people. It will keep you insane your whole life.

Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.

I do not at all understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.

Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns.

Dogs are the closest we come to knowing the divine love of God on this side of eternity.

... the reason life works at all is that not everyone in your tribe is nuts on the same day. [pp. 65-66]

Sometimes I think that Jesus watches my neurotic struggles, and shakes his head and grips his forehead and starts tossing back mojitos.

Nothing heals us like letting people know our scariest parts: When people listen to you cry and lament, and look at you with love, it's like they are holding the baby of you.

Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.

I thought the secret of life was obvious: be here now, love as if your whole life depended on it, find your life's work, and try to get hold of a giant panda.

Human lives are hard, even those of health and privilege, and don't make much sense. This is the message of the Book of Job: Any snappy explanation of suffering you come up with will be horseshit.

Extraordinary wonder and joy are woven through ordinary life. Hunt for them relentlessly.

I still believe that peace and plenty and happiness can be worked out some way. I am a fool.

There is more to life than working for money.

Give me your past, all your pain, all your anger, all your guilt. Release it to me, and I will be a safe harbor for the life you need to leave behind.

If you want to get results in your life try with comedy... first pressure then apply comedy. Always it shallow the shitty life-pressure!

Being able to say goodbye is a sign of growth.

Come on, a 25-page digression on god? You can’t have that kind of thing, cut it out!”

Every provisional political set-up following a revolution requires a dictatorship, and an energetic dictatorship at that.

When there is sympathy, there needs but one wise man in a company and all are wise,--so, a blockhead makes a blockhead of his companion. Wonderful power to benumb possesses this brother.

People just love to be entertained, and in order to entertain them, you have to do things in a way that they understand.