To have that powder blown up your nose is rather like being shot out of a rifle barrel lined with Baroque paintings and landing on a sea of electricity.

The world in which you were born is just one model of reality. Other cultures are not failed attempts at being you; they are unique manifestations of the human spirit.

A language is not just a body of vocabulary or a set of grammatical rules. ... Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind.

The measure of a society is not only what it does but the quality of its aspirations.

The surface of the Earth itself is an immense loom upon which the sun weaves the fabric of existence.

What is science but the pursuit of the truth? What is Buddhism but 2500 years of observation as to the nature of mind?

Risk discomfort and solitude for understanding.

Heroes are never perfect, but they're brave, they're authentic, they're courageous, determined, discreet, and they've got grit.

Its haunting to realize that half of the languages of the world are teetering on the brink of extinction.

Language is an old-growth forest of the mind.

All cultures through all time have constantly been engaged in a dance with new possibilities for life. Change is the one constant in human history.

17. We live on this earth till we die one dayThough we crave to live, death doth make its swayNone can stop it, thou nor I from its wayNor tears of kith and kin keeps it away

my mother gave me islam.my father gave me the god of absence.and here i am.a religion made of myself.

I am a woman, and I am a Latina. Those are the things that make my writing distinctive. Those are the things that give my writing power.

We cannot allow a beachhead of terrorism to form inside America. We cannot allow our nation to become a sanctuary for extremists.

There is ripe fruit over your head.

Liberty means more to me than life itself.

It is more important to just be as honest as I can about my characters than to write some really great sentence.

Bondage and Liberation are of the mind alone.

Then came a big strike. About 100 girls went out. The result was a victory, which netted us - I mean the girls - $2 increase in our wages on the average.

It was not fair, it was not fair, it was not fair. So cried his child's heart, and then his child's heart died a little. For that is also the way of the world.