Depression can kill you. It can also be a spiritually enriching experience. It's really an important part of my theology now and my spirituality that life is not perfect, and I grew up wanting it to be and thinking that if it wasn't, I could make it that way, and I had to acknowledge that I had all kinds of flaws and sadnesses and problems.

Kindness is an everyday byproduct of all the great virtues.

If God is God, we cant be afraid of what we can learn.

[Kindness] is a most edifying form of instant gratification.

What a liberating thing to realize that our problems are probably our richest sources for rising to the ultimate virtue of compassion.

You can disagree with another person's opinions. You can disagree with their doctrines. You can't disagree with their experience.

For every shrill and violent voice that throws itself in front of microphones and cameras in the name of God, there are countless lives of gentleness and good works who will not. We need to see and hear them, as well, to understand the whole story of religion in our world.