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

Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day.

This brief lifetime is my opportunity to receive love, deepen love, grow in love, and give love.

I am the prodigal son every time I search for unconditional love where it cannot be found.

Trust that the treasure we look for is hidden in the ground on which we stand.

It is in solitude that we discover that being is more important than having and that we are worth more than the results of our efforts. In solitude we discover that our life is not a possession to be defended but a gift to be shared.

Solitude is the furnace of transformation. Without solitude we remain victims of our society and continue to be entangled in the illusions of the false self.

Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.

Prayer is not what is done by us, but rather what is done by the Holy Spirit in us.

I often wonder if my knowledge about God has not become my greatest stumbling block to my knowledge of God.

Spiritual maturity is not knowing what to do with your whole life, but just knowing what to do next.

Somewhere we know that without silence words lose their meaning, that without listening speaking no longer heals, that without distance closeness cannot cure.

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.

Your heart is greater than your wounds.

What makes us human is not our mind but our heart, not our ability to think but our ability to love.

Keep a space where God can let something totally new take place.

Your life is not going to be easy, and it should not be easy. It ought to be hard. It ought to be radical; it ought to be restless; it ought to lead you to places you’d rather not go.

These days my bones are shifting, trembled things. I am more earthquake than anything.

Tis held that sorrow makes us wise.

I work so hard to make that sure I’m successful. If you’re positive and really excited and enthusiastic about what you’re doing, it’s going to happen, and it’s going to happen big time.

I know you’ve heard it a thousand times before. But it’s true – hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don’t love something, then don’t do it.

I will tell you one thing, though: I grew like hell from it.

Just because the pain is comfortable doesn’t mean you have to wear it.

Just remember: Surviving is the best revenge, no matter what the disaster has been.

Having grown up in a segregated environment in the south I know what it’s like to be stepped on, I know what it’s like also to see some black hero do well in the face of adversity.