If we accept that we have at least an iota of free will, we cannot throw it back the moment things go wrong. Like a human parent, God will help us when we ask for help, but in a way that will make us more mature, more real, not in a way that will diminish us.

I share Einstein's affirmation that anyone who is not lost in rapturous awe at the power and glory of the mind behind the universe "is as good as a burnt out candle."

you've got to learn to walk through a pigpen and not get dirty.

I don't understand it any more than you do, but one thing I've learned is that you don't have to understand things for them to be.

I like the fact that in ancient Chinese art the great painters always included a deliberate flaw in their work: human creation is never perfect.

Only a fool is not afraid.

I don't know if they're really like everybody else, or if they're able to pretend they are.