If we want to be heard we must speak in a language the listener can understand and on a level at which the listener is capable of operating.

Idealists are people who believe in the potential of human nature for transformation. . . . The most essential attribute of human nature is its mutability and freedom from instinct . . . it is always within our power to change our nature. So it is actually the idealists who are on the mark and the realists who are off base.

We cannot even let the other person into our hearts or minds unless we empty ourselves. We can truly listen to him or truly hear her only out of emptiness.

Courage is not the absence of fear; it is the making of action in spite of fear.

The principal form that the work of love takes is attention. When we love another person we give him or her our attention; we attend to that person's growth.

The more effort we make to appreciate and perceive reality, the larger and more accurate our maps will be. But many do not want to make this effort.

It is only because of problems that we grow mentally and spiritually.