Shame corrodes the very part of us that believes we are capable of change.

Compassion is not a virtue -- it is a commitment. It's not something we have or don't have -- it's something we choose to practice.

If you want to make a difference, the next time you see someone being cruel to another human being, take it personally. Take it personally because it is personal!

We cannot grow when we are in shame, and we can't use shame to change ourselves or others.

..the best strategy for giving is a two-fold approach: a basic plan combined with a willingness to consider spontaneous giving when unique opportunities arise.

[A] book is not merely a book, it is the sun as well.

You can't cure your own cancer, obviously, especially if it's late stage.

Agitation is that part of our intellectual life where vitality results; there ideas are born, breed and bring forth.

In the olden days, everybody sang. You were expected to sing as well as talk. It was a mark of the cultured man to sing.

I wish everyone a wonderful World Cup, played in a spirit of true fraternity.

Make specific appointments with yourself to work on goals, and treat an appointment with yourself as you'd treat an appointment with anybody else.

Abstractions about right and wrong, whether they are as old as Thou Shalt Not Kill or as modern as Do Your Own Thing, often serve only to confuse and weaken genuine moral decision.

If there’s life on other planets, then the earth is the Universe’s insane asylum.

For me and my storytelling and the way that I embrace stories in the way that I embrace characters, I desperately needed to know that everything was okay.