I was born into a Catholic family. I grew up in West Belfast. Faith was very important to us eight children and my mother and father. It was grounded in the Christian tradition of social involvement.

If we want to reap the harvest of peace and justice in the future, we will have to sow seeds of nonviolence, here and now, in the present.

Our common humanity is more important than all the things that divide us.

We have really got to create a culture in our world today where we recognize that every human life is sacred and precious and we have no right to take another human life.

It's okay to be scared, but fear is different. Fear is when we let being scared prevent us from doing what love requires of us.

We need radical thinking, creative ideas, and imagination.

Everyday there are people in our world that do absolutely amazing things. People of all ages are very capable of doing tremendous, courageous things in spite of their fear.

We need now to build a culture of genuine nonviolence and real democracy.

I witnessed a lot of violence, and I found myself asking the question: Do you ever use violence to try to bring about political change?

We can rejoice and celebrate today because we are living in a miraculous time. Everything is changing and everything is possible.

I believe that hope for the future depends on each of us taking nonviolence into our hearts and minds and developing new and imaginative structures which are nonviolent and life-giving for all.

Most of the time it is a good job and a good honour to fight against people's values, because most of the time people's values are irrational and absurd!

I blame my dad for my sweet tooth. His motto was 'Life is short

I teach child development and social policy as an undergraduate course, and I tell my students, "Look, on any of these issues, if you don't want to work on it for thirty years, don't start."

A flower touches everyone's heart.

As the days grow short, some faces grow long. But not mine. Every autumn, when the wind turns cold and darkness comes early, I am suddenly happy. It's time to start making soup again.

He wasn't smart enough to see it, said Jason Bourne. He couldn't think geometrically.

The impossible talked of is less impossible from the moment words are laid to it.

Dying men think of funny things-and that's what we all are here, aren't we? Dying men.

I set out on this ground, which I suppose to be self evident, "that the earth belongs in usufruct to the living": that the dead have neither powers nor rights over it.

I wish people who have trouble communicating would just shut up.