They always threw their arms around and hugged me while crying our Yiddish endearments. Yet none of them believed in God. They believed in social justice, good works, Israel, and Bette Midler. I was nearly thirty before I met a religious Jew.

It's better to be kind than to be right.

[S]he believed that the Buddhists were right–that if you want, you will suffer; if you love, you will grieve. (68)

Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor.

If I were going to begin practicing the presence of God for the first time today, it would help to begin by admitting the three most terrible truths of our existence: that we are so ruined, and so loved, and in charge of so little.

But grace can be the experience of a second wind, when even though what you want is clarity and resolution, what you get is stamina and poignancy and the strength to hang on.

The opposite of faith is not doubt, it’s certainty.