The end is where we start from. T.S. Eliot

Parables release the adrenaline of urgency into our bloodstream.

I had escaped the snare of certitude that I welcomed so avidly at first and entered, via the name of Jesus, the wide and comprehensive company of Jesus.

We learn the language of prayer by immersing ourselves in the language that God uses to reveal Himself to us.

Apart from childhood and crisis, prayers have a way of being abstracted from the homely and distinctive details that are part and parcel of our ordinary and daily life.

God uses language to create and command us.

Language consists in equal parts of speaking and silence.

Self-justification is a verbal defense for restoring the appearance of righteousness without doing anything about the substance.

The temptations that use the raw material of good for evil can continue unrecognized for a long time without awareness.

When it comes to doing something about what is wrong in the world, Jesus is best known for his fondness for the minute, the invisible, the quiet, the slow – yeast, salt, seeds, light. And manure.

Money and machines anesthetize neediness. They put us in charge, in control. As long as the money holds out and the machines are in good repair, we don't need to pray.

There can never be suffering in the home of a person who is working for world's salvation.

He has such a patronizing tone and manner, and such a sarcastic sense of humor. I found him rather brutal, a kind of elegant brutality which appealed. No, I think he came pretty much off the page.

By nature, worship is not some performance we do, but a presence we experience.

I'm staying," Henry said, annoyed. "Why?" "Because, if I leave, it would be like abandoning two mentally challenged people in a nuclear waste dump.

My writing process is very feedback-based. When I do stand-up, I listen to the audience. I try to understand what's connecting, what's not connecting, and then rewrite, rewrite and rewrite.

No matter who you are, you have the nature and capacity for leadership.

A man is the whole encyclopedia of facts. The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn, and Egypt, Greece, Rome, Gaul, Britain, America, lie folded already in the first man.

You can work hard, do everything that you think is right, but one thing you'll never overcome in life is fate. You can't control fate.

I love a challenge, and I think it's when people least expect you to do something that you often do your best.

The market system rewards me outlandishly for what I do, but that doesn't mean I'm any more deserving of a good life than a teacher or a doctor or someone who fights in Afghanistan.