“Much depends on your attitude. If you are filled with negative judgment and anger, then you will feel separate from other people. You will feel lonely.”

Discovering more joy does not, save us from the inevitability of hardship and heartbreak.

Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime. Teach a man to cycle and he will realize fishing is stupid and boring.

We may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low.

The path of joy was connection and the path of sorrow was separation.

Religion is like a knife: you can either use it to cut bread, or stick in someone’s back.

There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream to find out why they’re falling in.

A person is a person through other persons; you can’t be human in isolation; you are human only in relationships.

If you are setting out to be joyful you are not going to end up being joyful. You’re going to find yourself turned in on yourself. It’s like a flower. You open, you blossom, really because of other people.

Forgiving is not forgetting; its actually remembering–remembering and not using your right to hit back. Its a second chance for a new beginning. And the remembering part is particularly important. Especially if you dont want to repeat what happened.

In the end generosity is the best way of becoming more, more, and more joyful.

To protect our children, we must talk to them about rape.

A very important but difficult piece of renewing relationships is accepting responsibility for our part in any conflict.

We need other human beings in order to be human. I am because other people are. A person is entitled to a stable community life, and the first of these communities is the family.

If you want to keep people subjugated, the last thing you place in their hands is a Bible. There’s nothing more radical, nothing more revolutionary, nothing more subversive against injustice and oppression than the Bible.

Forgiveness is truly the grace by which we enable another person to get up, and get up with dignity, to begin anew.

I wish I could shut up, but I can’t, and I won’t.

Life is grim, and we don’t have to be grim all the time.

You can never win when you wear the ugly cloak of self-pity and the sour sound of whining.

I know who I am. I have a very strong sense of self.

Treat everyone you meet like God in drag.

Take the attitude of a student, never be too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new.

Always, always, always referring every goddam thing that happens right back to our lousy little egos.

When it comes to swag, there’s no gender involved.

Hate me for who I am, I don’t care. At least I’m not pretending to be someone I’m not.