We are addicted to our egotism, our likes and dislikes and prejudices, and depend upon them for our own sense of identity.

It's a great event to get outside and enjoy nature. I find it very exciting no matter how many times I see bald eagles.

Look into your own heart, discover what it is that gives you pain and then refuse, under any circumstance whatsoever, to inflict that pain on anybody else.

Jesus did not spend a great deal of time discoursing about the trinity or original sin or the incarnation, which have preoccupied later Christians. He went around doing good and being compassionate.

Each of the world religions has its own particular genius, its own special insight into the nature and requirements of compassion, and has something unique to teach us.

I like silence; I'm a gregarious loner and without the solitude, I lose my gregariousness.

Compassion is not an option. It's the key to our survival.

Religious people often prefer to be right rather than compassionate. Often, they don't want to give up their egotism. They want their religion to endorse their ego, their identity.

Religion isn’t about believing things. It's ethical alchemy. It’s about behaving in a way that changes you, that gives you intimations of holiness and sacredness.

I am not interested in the afterlife. Religion is supposed to be about losing your ego, not preserving it eternally in optimum conditions.

Surely it's better to love others, however messy and imperfect the involvement, than to allow one's capacity for love to harden.

It is hard work and great art to make life not so serious.

The great grey beast February had eaten Harvey Swick alive.

Still, even when false, legends can be most informative.

The only time it's hopeless is when you're dead! Long as you're alive, you can get better - you can make it better.

There is a single thread of attitude, a single direction of flow, that joins our present time to its early burgeoning in Mediterranean civilization.

If anyone would have been paying serious attention to my puppet shows, I would have been sent to therapy very young.

Laying on the floor and listening to music might be all the therapy that you need.

In the space of seven years I have succeeded in accomplishing a great work and uniting the whole world in one Empire.

Whether or not you have good consumer protection has a big effect on safety and soundness of the banking community, especially smaller banks.

Lu-cy...you have some s'plainin' to do. ~Gem