The capacity to be patient, to bear with others through thick and thin, is within the reach of anyone.

I like to remind my friends frequently how short life is. This is the important message of death: not a day to waste, not a day to quarrel, not a day to brood upon yourself. This is not losing the joy of life; this is gaining the joy of life.

Nothing really worth having comes quickly and easily. If it did, I doubt that we would ever grow.

Human relationships are the perfect tool for sanding away our rough edges and getting at the core of divinity within us.

Lasting change happens when people see for themselves that a different way of life is more fulfilling than their present one.

The earth was our home, she would have said, but no less was it home to the oxen that pulled our plows or the elephants that roamed in the forest and worked for us. They lived with us as partners whose well-being was inseparable from our own.

The Sufis advise us to speak only after our words have managed to pass through three gates. At the first gate, we ask ourselves, 'Are these words true?' If so, we let them pass on; if not, back they go. At the second gate, we ask, 'Are the necessary?' At the last gate, we ask, 'Are they kind?'