“Religion often is misused for purely power-political goals, including war.”

In the event that my illness worsens, I want to have a guarantee that I can die in a dignified manner. Nowhere in the bible does it say that a person has to stick it out to the decreed end. No one tells us what “decreed” means.

If priests were allowed to marry, if this would be an optional thing, and if he could have wife and children, he would certainly have less temptation to satisfy certain sexual impulses with minors.

But I have to add – and this answers your other question – this catholicity in time and in space is only meaningful for me if there is, at the same time, a concentration on the Gospel.

I am firmly convinced that there is life after death, not in a primitive sense but as the entry of my completely finite person into God’s infinity, as a transition into another reality beyond the dimension of space and time that pure reason can neither affirm nor deny.

All historical experience demonstrates the following: Our earth cannot be changed unless in the not too distant future an alteration in the consciousness of individuals is achieved.

Alluding to hell is a warning that a person can completely neglect his purpose in life. I don’t believe in an eternal hell.

However, if the religions in essence merely repeat statements from the United Nations Human Rights Declaration, such a Declaration becomes superfluous; an ethic is more than rights.

A Church which abandons the truth abandons itself.

Everyone agrees the celibacy rule is just a Church law dating from the 11th century, not a divine command.

There will be peace on earth when there is peace among the world religions.

As a matter of fact, you have deficiencies in all religions, but you have truth in all religions.

There will be no peace among the nations without peace among the religions. There will be no peace among the religions without dialogue among the religions.

It is not certain that everything is certain, neither is it certain that everything is uncertain.

God’s love does not protect us from suffering. God’s love protects us in the midst of suffering.

I’m not saying goodbye to life because I’m a misanthropist or disdain this life, but because, for other reasons, it’s time to move on.

That is the Roman way: to give favors to the favorites.

The real guru is the pure intellect within; and the purified, deeply aspiring mind is the disciple.

Before we had our becoming here, we existed There, men other than now; we were pure souls.

The sculptor cuts away here, smoothes there, makes this line lighter, this other purer, until he or she has shown a beautiful face upon the statue.

As to the pure mind all things are pure, so to the poetic mind all things are poetical.

A pure democracy is a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person.

Everybody loved ‘The A-Team’ because it was entertainment, pure and simple.

There are certain persons for whom pure Truth is a poison.

You can create something that is pure genius, but you have to get your timing right.