"By love [God] can be caught and held, but by thinking never."
"You must love in such a way that the person you love feels free."
"Life has taught us that love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction."
“The deeper our faith, the more doubt we must endure; the deeper our hope, the more prone we are to despair; the deeper our love, the more pain its loss will bring: these are a few of the paradoxes we must hold as human beings. If we refuse to hold them in the hopes of living without doubt, despair, and pain, we also find ourselves living without faith, hope, and love... (W)e are reminded that human nature, like nature herself, can hold opposites together as paradoxes, resulting in a more capacious and generous life.”
"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."
"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."
"Anchor the eternity of love in your own soul and embed this planet with its goodness."
"We tend to equate hospitality with parties and social gatherings or gracious resorts and expensive restaurants. To us hospitality is an industry, not a practice, one that summons Martha Stewart to mind more quickly than Jesus Christ. But to ancient Christians hospitality was a virtue, part of the love of neighbor and fundamental to being a person of the way. While contemporary Christians tend to equate morality with sexual ethics, our ancestors defined morality as welcoming the stranger.
Unlike almost every other contested idea in early Christianity, including the nature of Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity, the unanimous witness of the ancient fathers and mothers was that hospitality was the primary Christian virtue. From the New Testament texts that unambiguously urge believers to 'practice hospitality' through St. Augustine's works in the fifth century, early Christian writings extol hospitality toward the sick, the poor, travelers, widows, orphans, slaves, prisoners, prostitutes, and the dying."
"This much I know: you have to forget your own worries for the sake of others, for the sake of those whom you love."
"Nature, the soul, love, and God, one recognizes through the heart, and not through the reason… Reason is a tool, a machine, which is driven by the spiritual fire."
"Judge nothing, you will be happy. Forgive everything, you will be happier. Love everything, you will be happiest."
"That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation. Go and study it."
"The only clear line I draw these days is this: when my religion tries to come between me and my neighbor, I will choose my neighbor... Jesus never commanded me to love my religion."
"God cannot be known; God can only be loved. And that loving becomes its own way of knowing."
"You don’t love yourself enough. Or you’d love your nature too, and what it demands of you."
"I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death."
"The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge. Neither love without knowledge, nor knowledge without love can produce a good life."
"If our heart were large enough to love life in all its detail, we would see that every instant is at once a giver and a plunderer."