“In the end, just three things matter: How well we have lived How well we have loved How well we have learned to let go.”

Life is so hard, how can we be anything but kind?

To undertake a genuine spiritual path is not to avoid difficulties but to learn the art of making mistakes wakefully, to bring them to the transformative power of our heart.

Compassion for ourselves gives rise to the power to transform resentment into forgiveness, hatred into friendliness, and fear into respect for all beings.

When we let go of our battles and open our hearts to things as they are, then we come to rest in the present moment. This is the beginning and the end of spiritual practice.

If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.

No matter how difficult the past, you can always begin again today.

A second quality of mature spirituality is kindness. It is based on a fundamental notion of self-acceptance.

You hold in your hand an invitation: to remember the transforming power of forgiveness and loving kindness. To remember that no matter where you are and what you face, within your heart peace is possible.

There are no holy places and no holy people, only holy moments, only moments of wisdom.

In deep self acceptance, grows a compassionate understanding.

Wherever you are is the perfect place to awaken. This moment is the exact place to practice compassion and loving awareness. You have all the ingredients to breathe and find freedom just where you are.

The heart is like a garden. It can grow compassion or fear, resentment or love. What seeds will you plant there?

Life without forgiveness is unbearable.

We must look at ourselves over and over again in order to learn to love, to discover what has kept our hearts closed, and what it means to allow our hearts to open.

When we get too caught up in the busyness of the world, we lose connection with one another – and ourselves.

The things that matter most in our lives are not fantastic or grand. They are the moments when we touch one another.

It’s okay. I’ve been here before. The truth is I’m quite good with goodbyes.

When all is said and done, the life of faith is nothing if not an unending struggle of the spirit with every available weapon against the flesh.

Always end the name of your child with a vowel, so that when you yell the name will carry.

The traveler has to knock at every alien door to come to his own, and one has to wander through all the outer worlds to reach the innermost shrine at the end.

On the seashore of endless worlds children meet.

In terms of love, you’re not in control and I hate that feeling. I seem to write a lot of sad songs because I’m a very tragic person. But there’s always an element of humor at the end.

In short, the end justifies the means.

Woe to the statesman whose arguments for entering a war are not as convincing at its end as they were at the beginning, Bismarck had cautioned.