we are reaching the point, if we have not passed it already, where the largest public housing program in America will be our penitentiary system.

Hope is essential to any political struggle for radical change when the overall social climate promotes disillusionment and despair.

For anyone worn down, The Impossible Will Take a Little While is a bracing double cappuccino.

Considering the absence of legal coercion, the surprising thing is that men have for so long, and, on the whole, so reliably, adhered to what we might call the breadwinner ethic.

Exercise is the yuppie version of bulimia.

No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.

The 'working poor,' as they are approvingly termed, are in fact the major philanthropists of our society.

There is a vast difference between positive thinking and existential courage.

No one should be incarcerated for debt or squeezed for money they have no chance of getting their hands on.

Poverty is not a character failing or a lack of motivation. Poverty is a shortage of money.

Personally, I can't see why it would be any less romantic to find a husband in a nice four-color catalogue than in the average downtown bar at happy hour.

One's own religion is after all a matter between oneself and one's Maker and no one else's.

Every source of blessing is a point of attack.

The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.

We owe a lot to Thomas Edison - if it wasn't for him, we'd be watching television by candlelight.

Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us.

In Eden who sleeps happiest? The serpent.

Time takes all and gives all

If you are what you eat, then I only want to eat the good stuff.

Death is real. Death changes things. Everything else is filler, merely a message from our sponsor.

Yet [Dalai Lama] has said very strongly that basic freedoms of thought and speech have to be respected in Tibet and they're not at the moment. Tolerance doesn't mean accepting what's unfair.