To say that I would have done otherwise had I wanted to is simply to say that I would have lived in a different universe had I been in a different universe.

The problem with religion, because it's been sheltered from criticism, is that it allows people to believe en masse what only idiots or lunatics could believe in isolation.

Either God can do nothing to stop catastrophes like this, or he doesn't care to, or he doesn't exist. God is either impotent, evil, or imaginary. Take your pick, and choose wisely.

A puppet is free as long as he loves his strings.

We have a choice. We have two options as human beings. We have a choice between conversation and war. That's it. Conversation and violence. And faith is a conversation stopper.

How we pay attention to the present moment...determin es the character of our experience and...the quality of our lives.

You can do what you decide to do — but you cannot decide what you will decide to do.

How can we be “free” as conscious agents if everything that we consciously intend is caused by events in our brain that we do not intend and of which we are entirely unaware? We can’t.

You don't get anything worth getting, by pretending to know things you don't know.

Jesus Christ—who, as it turns out, was born of a virgin, cheated death, and rose bodily into the heavens—can now be eaten in the form of a cracker

The position of the Muslim community in the face of all provocations seems to be: Islam is a religion of peace, and if you say that it isn't, we will kill you.

The great law of culture: Let each become all that he was created capable of being.

Those who know the least obey the best.

You have to care about how good you are and how good you feel, but not about how good people think you are or how good people think you look.

Count my own money, see the paper cut fingers?

All your quirks and all your problems - even your depressions and your failures - that’s what makes you you.

Real Christians do not carry their religion, their religion carries them. It is not weight, it is wings.

They seem to be getting it together. How much damage will the picture of people spending four or five days on rooftops do That depends on how well it goes from here on out.

In the Eighties, live work had to be very extravagant.

A man perfects himself by working.

A perfect method for awakening is to examine the results of our daily actions. If they are harmful, we know we need more consciousness.