The belly laugh is the best way to evacuate anguish.

People may come to our communities because they want to serve the poor; they will only stay once they have discovered that they themselves are poor.

Every child, every person needs to know that they are a source of joy; every child, every person, needs to be celebrated. Only when all of our weaknesses are accepted as part of our humanity can our negative, broken self-images be transformed.

Community begins in mystery and ends in administration. Leaders move away from people and into paper.

A society which discards those who are weak and non-productive risks exaggerating the development of reason, organisation, aggression and the desire to dominate. It becomes a society without a heart, without kindness - a rational and sad society, lacking celebration, divided within itself and given to competition, rivalry and, finally, violence.

We all know well that we can do things for others and in the process crush them, making them feel that they are incapable of doing things by themselves. To love someone is to reveal to them their capacities for life, the light that is shining in them.

A community is only a community when the majority of its members are making the transition from 'the community for myself' to 'myself for the community'.