Because poets feel what we're afraid to feel, venture where we're reluctant to go, we learn from their journeys without taking the same dramatic risks.

I'm fascinated how often and with what whole-heartedness people will risk their lives to perform acts of courage, sacrifice, and compassion for total strangers.

... love is an act of sedition, a revolt against reason, an uprising in the body politic, a private mutiny.

the biggest threat to the religious experience may well come from organized religion itself.

Variety is the pledge that matter makes to living things.

A kiss is like singing into someone's mouth.

We ogle plants and animals up close on television, the Internet and in the movies. We may not worship the animals we see, but we still regard them as necessary physical and spiritual companions. Technological nature can't completely satisfy that yearning.