To copy a virtue in another is more copying than it is virtue. Try to learn what that virtue is based upon.

Study the assumptions behind your actions. Then study the assumptions behind your assumptions.

The secret of Sufism is that it has no secret at all'.

When a belief becomes more than an instrument, you are lost. You remain lost until you learn what 'belief' is really for.

Premature independence is the daughter of conceit.

Do not try to be humble: learn humility.

No practice exists in isolation.

If your desire for 'good' is based on greed, it is not good, but greed.

Anybody or anything may stand between you and knowledge if you are unfit for it.

Exercise power by means of kindness, and you may be causing more damage than you could by cruelty. Neither approach is correct.

If you really want to learn, do not be surprised if someone tries to teach you. And do not lightly reject the method.

In the face of impossible odds, people who love this country can change it.

It's essential to keep moving, learning and evolving for as long as you're here and this world keeps spinning

You should've told me Tess, " I murmured against her hair. "You helped me find my humanness but you took it away with your lies.

If you want to know my personality, look through my bedroom window and see how I act.

Only with the Internet can a peasant I have never met hear my voice and I can learn what's on his mind. A fairy tale has come true.

guilt is a pollutant and we don't need any more of it in the world.

What are the questions you wish to ask?

Follow Through is elegant, sure footed, smart—a nest of sticks that won’t stay sticks—a nest of sticks that snowballs—scary and marvelous.

Palestinians have no wealth or power.

My short stories have always pushed twenty pages. That's no length for a short story to be. You either do them short like Carver or you stop trying.