Whatever conclusions we reach about the reality of God, the history of this idea must tell us something important about the human mind and the nature of our aspiration.

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.

I am writing in the garden. To write as one should of a garden one must write not outside it or merely somewhere near it, but in the garden.

Of all the thoughts that hover in your mind, the one you deliberately choose and act upon - changes your LIFE!

She was strength and power and so many things he’d pretended for twelve years he didn’t miss, didn’t need.

I don't love dolls. I love women. I love their bodies.

Wit may do very well for a mistress, but [I] should prefer reason for a wife.

The criterion for free choice can never be an absolute one, but neither is it entirely relative.

Intellect has nothing to do with equality except to respect it as a sublime convention.

[Phil Wood] knew about wine. He knew about food. He knew about art. He knew about classical music. He was interested in things.

Change is the essence of life; change is the great challenge, the great constant. Change is the ultimate teller of tales.

Notice that the whole story of Eden is the story of the struggle over a woman's relationship to a psychoactive plant.