"The more I learn, the more I learn how little I know."

"And when one hears good talk one can join in it without compromising any opinions but one's own; or one can listen and answer inwardly. Ah, good conversation -- there's nothing like it, is there? The air of ideas is the only air worth breathing."

"If I became a monster today, and decided to kill them, one by one, they would become aware only after most of the flock had been slaughtered, thought the boy. They trust me, and they've forgotten how to rely on their own instincts, because I lead them to nourishment."

"...for her, every day was the same, and when each day is the same as the next, it's because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day that the sun rises."

"I know why I want to get back to my flock, he thought. I understand sheep; they're no longer a problem, and they can be good friends. On the other hand, I don't know if the desert can be a friend, and it's in the desert that I have to search for my treasure."

"...making a decision was only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision."

"With ifs, a flea could carry an elephant."
"Maybe. But without ifs, I might as well hang myself."

"Yes. God's existence is either true or not. But calling it a scientific question implies that the tools of science can provide the answer. From my perspective, God cannot be completely contained within nature, and therefore God's existence is outside of science's ability to really weigh in."

"The difference between people who exercise initiative and those who don't is literally the difference between night and day."

"To try to change outward attitudes and behaviors does very little good in the long run if we fail to examine the basic paradigms from which these attitudes flow."

"Being is seeing in the human dimension. And what we see is highly interrelated to what we are. We can't go very far to change our seeing without simultaneously changing our being, and vice versa."

"For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, there is one striking at the root."

"We must not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time."

"...our most difficult experiences become the crucibles that forge our character and develop the interal powers, the freedom to handle difficult circumstances in the future and to inspire others to do so as well."

"They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them."

"It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."



"Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless in facing them.
Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain but for the heart to conquer it.
Let me not look for allies in life's battlefield but to my own strength.
Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved but hope for the patience to win my freedom.
Grant me that I may not be a coward, feeling your mercy in my success alone;
But let me find the grasp of your hand in my failure."