To me, it's a great day every time I receive a letter from somebody who climbed inside one of my books, inhabited it for a while, learned a little something, and emerged grateful.

The bad thing about falling into pieces is that it hurts. The good thing about it is that once you're lying there in shards you've got nothing left to protect, and so have no reason not to be honest

But I finally concluded that it is an inalienable right of lovers everywhere to become temporarily worthless to the world, it may even be their duty.

We hear nothing so clearly as what comes out of silence.

And into the brown paper bag of my heart, Eddy slipped a smile.

I started having doubts right on top of my certainty.

Music is just a word for something we love largely because it consists of things that words can't express. Likewise, the heart is just a word for something in us that music sometimes touches.

... the best way to strip the allure and dreaminess from a lifelong dream is, very often, simply to have it come true.

Ecosystems are holy. The word "environmental" is a deadly compromise itself. It's a policy word that lives only in the head, and barely there.

But churches always have been the leading cause of the need for churches.

The principles that will save Earth's life are the same principles that save the living souls of humans: ineluctable spiritual principles.

Then again, that's how the most successful predators work, she thinks ruefully. We stumble into their traps and do their work for them while we're busy getting on with the business of living.

Have I ever been in love? Really in love? And why is it that with each new guy I think I'm more in love with him than the last?

Least said, soonest mended

To desire to be what one can be is purpose in life. There are no exterior forces. There are only interior forces. Who squanders talent praises death.

We can choose to humble ourselves by receiving counsel and chastisement, . . . by forgiving those who have offended us, . . . by rendering selfless service. . . .

I had a nightmare that I slept without my nose tape on thank God it wasn't true!

If the word 'integration' means anything, this is what it means that we, with love, shall force our brothers to see themselves as they are, to cease fleeing from reality and begin to change it.

The day we were born, we were all God's children.

The ox suffers, the cart complains.

Swimming for his life, a man does not see much of the country through which the river winds.