If you are determined not to risk pain, then you must do without many things: having children, getting married, the ecstasy of sex, the hope of ambition, friendship-all that makes life alive, meaningful and significant.

Our view of reality is like a map with which to negotiate the terrain of life. If the map is true and accurate, we will generally know how to get there. If the map is false and inaccurate, we generally will be lost.

True love is not a feeling by which we are overwhelmed. It is a committed, thoughtful decision.

Falling in love is not an extension of one's limits or boundaries; it is a partial and temporary collapse of them.

When we avoid the legitimate suffering that results from dealing with problems, we also avoid the growth that problems demand from us.

The key to community is the acceptance, in fact the celebration of our individual and cultural differences. It is also the key to world peace

The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.