As the traveler who has once been from home is wiser than he who has never left his own doorstep, so a knowledge of one other culture should sharpen our ability to scrutinize more steadily, to appreciate more lovingly, our own.

The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases. Each of us carries his own life-form—an indeterminable form which cannot be superseded by any other.

A problem well-put is half-solved.

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen — not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

All that is important in this moment is movement. Make the movement vital and worth living. Do not let it slip away unnoticed and unused.

For all men strive to grasp what they do not know, while none strive to grasp what they already know; and all strive to discredit what they do not excel in, while none strive to discredit what they do excel in. This is why there is chaos.

Remember that you ought to behave in life as you would at a banquet. As something is being passed around it comes to you; stretch out your hand, take a portion of it politely. It passes on; do not detain it. Or it has not come to you yet; do not project your desire to meet it, but wait until it comes in front of you. So act toward children, so act toward a wife, so toward office, so toward wealth.

Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.

Wherever there is injustice, war, discrimination against women, gays and the disadvantaged, I did my best to show up and exert moral persuasion.

Speech is civilization itself. The word, even the most contradictory word, preserves contact—it is silence which isolates.

I had always hoped that this land might become a safe & agreeable Asylum to the virtuous & persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong.

Diversity of opinion within the framework of loyalty to our free society is not only basic to a university but to the entire nation.

Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color.

Isn’t it amazing that we are all made in God’s image, and yet there is so much diversity among his people?

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.

Our task must be to free ourselves…by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.

When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.

The most crucial use of knowledge and education is to understand the importance of developing a good heart.

One cannot conceive anything so strange and so implausible that it has not already been said by one philosopher or another.

The knowledge and skills you have achieved are meant to be forgotten so you can float comfortably in emptiness, without obstruction.

No power and no treasure can outweigh the extension of our knowledge.

Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.

Between what is said and not meant, and what is meant and not said, most of love is lost.

The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.

Love is reflected in love.

What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.

From this arises the question whether it is better to be loved rather than feared, or feared rather than loved. It might perhaps be answered that we should wish to be both: but since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved.

The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved.

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.

People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.

I’m fascinated with myself and love hearing the sound of my own voice. I’d like to hear what I have to say. A lot of people don’t like being alone because they truly don’t like themselves, but I love me.

I define love thus: The will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth.

The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.