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.

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.

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.

She spilled rice on my knee, and she smiled. I wanted her to spill a thousand things on me, lava, acid, bricks, anything, and smile each time

Chinese civilisation is so systematic that wild animals have been abolished on principle.

The true creator-self is a light at heart and free child, who accesses destiny as a simple act of joyful play.

The Essence of Knowledge is, having it, to use it.

Women are their own worst enemies. And guilt is the main weapon of self-torture . . . Show me a woman who doesn't feel guilty and I'll show you a man.

Cigars must be smoked one at a time, peaceably, with all the leisure in the world. Cigarettes are of the instant, Cigars are for eternity.

For a day, just for one day, talk about that which disturbs no one and bring some peace into those beautiful eyes.

There's a lot of different things that we do during life that could personally harm us and I choose not to stop doing those things.

Sweetness eliminates gravity and thus a man with a heavy burden of life starts feeling like floating in the air before sweetness.

Whoever thought the immediate alternates with the immediate action is not an abstract painter.