Hope is believing in spite of the evidence, and then watching the evidence change.

More than just a moral issue, hope is a spiritual and even religious choice. Hope is not a feeling; it is a decision. And the decision for hope is based on what you believe at the deepest levels - what your most basic convictions are about the world and what the future holds - all based on your faith. You choose hope, not as a naive wish, but as a choice, with your eyes wide open to the reality of the world - just like the cynics who have not made the decision for hope.

A billion dollars every week for Iraq, $87 billion for Iraq. We can't get $5 billion for childcare over five years in welfare reform.

You can't be evangelical and associate yourself with Jesus and what he says about the poor and just have no other domestic concerns than tax cuts for wealthy people.

If you are asking the wrong question, it doesn't matter how good the answer is, you aren't going to get where you want to go.

Our calling is not only to pull people out of the river, but to go upstream to find out what or who is pushing them in.

Hope unbelieved is always considered nonsense. But hope believed is history in the process of being changed.