We are each called to go through life reclaiming the planet an inch at a time until the Garden of Eden grows green again.

Darkness deserves gratitude. It is the alleluia point at which we learn to understand that all growth does not take place in the sunlight.

Beware the religion that turns you against another one. It's unlikely that it's really religion at all.

Hope is not a matter of waiting for things outside of us to get better. It is about getting better inside about what is going on outside.

We talk religion in a world that worships the bread but does not distribute it, that practices ritual rather than righteousness, that confesses but does not repent.

Grief is a sign that we loved something more than ourselves. . . . Grief makes us worthy to suffer with the rest of the world.

Compassion makes no distinction between friends and enemies, neighbors and outsiders, compatriots and foreigners. Compassion is the gate to human community.

When souls really touch, it is forever. Then space and time disappear, and all that remains is the consciousness that we are not alone in life.

Compassion is not sympathy. Compassion is mercy. It is a commitment to take responsibility for the suffering of others.

Oppressors do not get to be oppressors in a single sweep. They manage it because little by little, we make them that. We overlook too much in the beginning and wonder why we lost control in the end.

Compassion is the ability to understand how difficult it is for people to be the best of what they want to be at all times.

Copy cats may seem good at what they are doing, but they will never find a spot at the top.

If one should criticize one should always have a meaningful explanation to accompany.

Every insult is an opportunity.

You are not just a funny person or just a journalist. Most people are hybrids of having a smart opinion and a great sense of humor.

I want a president with a record of public service, someone whose life's work shows our children that we don't chase fame and fortune for ourselves: we fight to give everyone a chance to succeed.

The giant step in the walk of faith is the one we take when we decide God no longer is a part of our lives. He IS our life.

Only six percent of films are made by women. And so in that that paradigm, a woman making a film at all is a political statement. A woman speaking her truth creates a feminist film.

Human misery must somewhere have a stop; there is no wind that always blows a storm.

Much sheer effort goes into avoiding the truth; left to itself, it sweeps in like the tide.

We do not do well except when we know where the best is and when we are assured that we have touched it and hold its power within us.