"After silence that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music."

"The conspicuous absence of the lynching tree in American theological discourse and preaching is profoundly revealing, especially since the crucifixion was clearly a first-century lynching."

"Remember, they call it a spiritual practice, not a spiritual perfect."

"Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing; nor upon tradition; nor upon rumor; nor upon what is in a scripture; nor upon surmise; nor upon an axiom; nor upon specious reasoning; nor upon a bias towards a notion that has been pondered over; nor upon another’s seeming ability; nor upon the consideration, “The monk is our teacher.” But when you yourselves know: “These things are good; these things are not blamable; these things are praised by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to benefit and happiness,” enter on and abide in them."

[known as the Kalama Sutta or the Buddha’s “charter of free inquiry”]

"However, a clear distinction should be made between what is not found by science and what is found to be nonexistent by science. What science finds to be nonexistent we should all accept as nonexistent, but what science merely does not find is a completely different matter."

"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need but not for every man's greed."

"If God is the ground of being, as I believe God is, then the only way you and I can worship God is by having the courage to be all that we can be -- in the infinite variety of our humanity. Whether we are male or female, gay or straight, transgender or bisexual, white or black or yellow or brown, left-handed or right-handed, brilliant or not quite so brilliant. No matter what the human difference is, you have something to offer in your own being. Nobody else can offer what you have to offer. And, the only way you can worship God is by daring to be all that you can be and not be bound by the fears of yesterday."

"Listen now. When people talk listen completely. Don’t be thinking what you’re going to say. Most people never listen. Nor do they observe. You should be able to go into a room and when you come out know everything that you saw there and not only that. If that room gave you any feeling you should know exactly what it was that gave you that feeling. Try that for practice. When you’re in town stand outside the theatre and see how the people differ in the way they get out of taxis or motor cars. There are a thousand ways to practice. And always think of other people."

"Art is the fossil record of the artist."

"Self-control is just empathy with your future self."

"I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us. That is my belief."

"Fixed ideas are like a cramp in your foot: the best remedy is to stomp on them."

"The majority of the people are not so afraid of holding a wrong opinion, as they are of holding an opinion alone."

"The task is not to find the lovable object, but to find the object before you lovable—whether given or chosen—and to be able to continue finding this one lovable, no matter how that person changes. To love is to love the person one sees."

"When I say it's you I like, I'm talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more than anything you can ever see or hear or touch. That deep part of you that allows you to stand for those things without which humankind cannot survive. Love that conquers hate, peace that rises triumphant over war, and justice that proves more powerful than greed."

"The story of Jesus is the story I'm willing to risk being wrong about."

“My working habits are simple: long periods of thinking, short periods of writing.”

"Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief, in denying them."

"Belief Initiates and guides action—Or it does nothing."

"Know it well, love was God's meaning.. Who reveals it to you? Love. What did God reveal to you? Love. Why does God reveal it to you? For love. Remain in this, and you will know more of the same. And you will never know different, without end."