“If I were to let my life be taken over by what is urgent, I might very well never get around to what is essential.”

We are called to be fruitful – not successful, not productive, not accomplished. Success comes from strength, stress, and human effort. Fruitfulness comes from vulnerability and the admission of our own weakness.

Every time there are losses, there are choices to be made. You choose to live your losses as passages to anger, blame, hatred, depression and resentment, or you choose to let these losses be passages to something new, something wider, and deeper.

We cannot make it rain but we can see to it that the rain falls on prepared soil.

One of the tragedies of our life is that we keep forgetting who we are.

The main question is not, how can we hide our wounds but how can we put our woundedness in service to others.

The spiritual life is a life beyond moods. It is a life in which we choose joy and do not allow ourselves to become victims of passing feelings of happiness or depression.

Forgiveness changes the way we remember.

Listening is a form of spiritual hospitality by which you invite strangers to become friends, to get to know their inner selves more fully, and even to dare to be silent with you.

I trust in you, Lord, but keep helping me in my moments of distrust and doubt.

Waiting time is not wasting time. Waiting patiently in expectation is the foundation of the spiritual life.

My whole life I have been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted, until I discovered that my interruptions were my work.

When we are crushed like grapes, we cannot think of the wine we will become.

Every time I take a step in the direction of generosity, I know I am moving from fear to love.

God, help me to see others not as enemies or as ungodly but rather as thirsty people. And give me the courage and compassion to offer your Living Water, which alone quenches deep thirst.

Dare to love and to be a real friend. The love you give and receive is a reality that will lead you closer and closer to God as well as those whom God has given you to love.

Without solitude it is virtually impossible to live a spiritual life. We do not take the spiritual life seriously if we do not set aside some time to be with God and listen to him.

Democracy is not merely a form of Government. It is essentially an attitude of respect and reverence towards fellowmen.

keep filling your cup of self-love. It’s very essential to feel peace when you close your eyes.

Anybody who knows about capitalism knows that bankruptcy is an essential part of capitalism.

Democracy in India is only a top-dressing on an Indian soil which is essentially undemocratic.

Feeling good about ourselves is essential in our being able to love others.

It is essential to resist the depiction of history as the work of heroic individuals.

There are many things that are essential to arriving at true peace of mind, and one of the most important is faith, which cannot be acquired without prayer.

Anybody who knows about capitalism knows that bankruptcy is an essential part of capitalism.