If we give someone a piece of bread and butter, that's kindness, but if we put jelly or peanut butter on it, then it's Loving Kindness.

A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.

All we can take with us to heaven is what we leave behind in the lives we touch.

Choices not chance determine your destiny.

Grudges are like hand grenades: it is wise to release them before they destroy you.

Teaching literature is teaching how to read. How to notice things in a text that a speed-reading culture is trained to disregard, overcome, edit out, or explain away; how to read what the language is doing, not guess what the author was thinking; how to take evidence from a page, not seek a reality to substitute for it.

Forgiveness is a stunning principle, your ticket out of hate and fear and chaos. ... I know what regret feels like; I've earned my credentials. But I also know what forgiveness feels like, because God has so graciously forgiven me.