“Within every hopeless situation and every seemingly hopeless person lies the possibility of transformation”

Out of the cacophony of random suffering and chaos that can mark human life, the life artist sees or creates a symphony of meaning and order.

When we see others as separate, they become a threat. When we see others as part of us, as connected, as interdependent, then there is no challenge we cannot face—together.

When we see others as the enemy, we risk becoming what we hate. When we oppress others, we end up oppressing ourselves. All of our humanity is dependent upon recognizing the humanity in others.

There is nothing more difficult than waking someone who is only pretending to be asleep.

It is through weakness and vulnerability that most of us learn empathy and compassion and discover our soul.

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.

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.

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.

Know, man hath all which Nature hath, but more, And in that more lie all his hopes of good.

Greatness is a spiritual condition.

I do not believe today everything I believed yesterday I wonder will I believe tomorrow everything I believe today.

I can’t read or sleep. Without hope or youth or money I sit constantly wishing I were dead.

Other people’s ideas of us are dependent largely on what they’ve hoped for.

What I think we need to do is infuse everyday and every action with the kind of values we hope will be in the future, with kindness, with nurturing, with dreams, ambition, using your talents, not resorting to violence, other forms of conflict resolution, with humor, with poetry, with music.

It is the habit of mankind to entrust to careless hope what they long for, and to use sovereign reason to thrust aside what they do not desire.

Still hope leads men to venture; and no one ever yet put himself in peril without the inward conviction that he would succeed in his design.