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.

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.

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.

An authentic spirituality does not cater to culture; it calls culture to accountability.

No one wakes up in the morning and says, 'I want to gain 150 pounds and I will start right now!

I also don't trust Caribou anymore. They're out there, on the tundra, waiting... Something's going down. I'm right about this.

People like Nicholas are always gonna be around, roots of disaster. But if we fail to rescue them (Zach and Chanel), that is when they actually win.

I do like the research part of writing, I must admit.

If we judge love by most of its effects, it resembles rather hatred than affection.

The power of art is the power of truth.

My family was always present when I needed them and sometimes felt even stronger emotions than me.

Widowhood imposed by religion or custom is an unbearable yoke and defiles the home by secret vice and degrades religion.

Man wants to be reconciled to God; wants to know that the past is forgiven.

To love is the great amulet that makes this world a garden.