The night was gone. The morning star was shining in the sky. I too had become a completely different person. The student of the Talmud, the child that I was, had been consumed in the flames. There remained only a shape that looked like me. A dark flame had entered into my soul and devoured it.

For in my tradition, as a Jew, I believe that whatever we receive we must share.

[Tibet] is a small country based on religious principle, religious traditions. It never wanted any conquest.

My anger rises up within faith and not outside it.

How can one explain the attraction terror holds for some minds — and why for intellectuals? . . .In a totalitarian and terrorist regime, man is no longer a unique being with infinite possibilities and limitless choices but a number, a puppet, with just this difference — numbers and puppets are not susceptible to fear.

I do not recall a Jewish home without a book on the table.

I think [Sacrifice of Isaac] is the most important event in the Bible except for Sinai.