Hope is a state of mind independent of the state of the world. If your heart's full of hope, you can be persistent when you can't be optimistic. You can keep the faith despite the evidence, knowing that only in so doing has the evidence any chance of changing. So while I'm not optimistic, I'm always very hopeful.

I'm delighted that the future is unsure. That's the way it should be.

The temptation to moralize is strong; it is emotionally satisfying to have enemies rather than problems, to seek out culprits rather than the flaws in the system.

Faith handles the ultimate incongruities of life, humor handles the more immediate ones.

When a man is drowning, it may be better for him to try to swim than to thrash around waiting for divine intervention.

To show compassion for an individual without showing concern for the structures of society that make him an object of compassion is to be sentimental rather than loving.

Charity is only a waystation on the road to justice.