“If you are stone, be magnetic; if a plant, be sensitive; but if you are human be love.”

Revolutions are not born of chance but of necessity.

Those who do not weep, do not see.

Love has no middle term; either it destroys, or it saves.

Not being heard is no reason for silence.

Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake.

It is nothing to die. It is frightful not to live.

When love has fused and mingled two beings in sacred and angelic unity, the secret of life has been discovered so far as they are concerned.

Nothing makes a man so adventurous as an empty pocket.

A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in – what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.

What a grand thing, to be loved! What a grander thing still, to love!

Love is the foolishness of men, and the wisdom of God.

Wisdom is the health of the soul.

Life’s great happiness is to be convinced we are loved.

Toleration is the best religion.

People do not lack strength, they lack will.

The wicked envy and hate; it is their way of admiring.

Science is the most durable and nondivisive way of thinking about the human circumstance. It transcends cultural, national, and political boundaries. You don’t have American science versus Canadian science versus Japanese science.

Religious moderation is the direct result of taking scripture less and less seriously. So why not take it less seriously still? Why not admit the the Bible is merely a collection of imperfect books written by highly fallible human beings.

We have a choice. We have two options as human beings. We have a choice between conversation and war. That’s it. Conversation and violence. And faith is a conversation stopper.

I know of no society in human history that ever suffered because its people became too desirous of evidence in support of their core beliefs.

The greatest human attainment in all the world is for a life to be so surrendered to Him that the name of God Almighty will be glorified through that life.

The moral landscape is the framework I use for thinking about questions of morality and human values in universal terms.

The only thing that permits human beings to collaborate with one another in a truly open-ended way is their willingness to have their beliefs modified by new facts. Only openness to evidence and argument will secure a common world for us.

Religious faith is the one species of human ignorance that will not admit of even the possibility of correction.