Compassionate listening is to help the other side suffer less. If we realize that other people are the same people as we are, we are no longer angry at them.

So let’s be honest with ourselves and not take ourselves too serious, and never condemn the other fellow for doing what we are doing every day, only in a different way.

I wish every American had an opportunity to sit down, to go to a base, to meet with families, to meet with service members, to sit down with our veterans – because we would think differently about our challenges as individuals.

When we understand string theory, we will know how the universe began. It won’t have much effect on how we live, but it is important to understand where we come from and what we can expect to find as we explore.

Who hears me, who understands me, becomes mine, a possession for all time.

Instead of comparing our lot with that of those who are more fortunate than we are, we should compare it with the lot of the great majority of our fellow men. It then appears that we are among the privileged.

One man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with him.

I hope I have helped to raise the profile of science and to show that physics is not a mystery but can be understood by ordinary people.

We have more possibilities available in each moment than we realize.

Love is when the other person’s happiness is more important than your own.

My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.

The questions which one asks oneself begin, at least, to illuminate the world, and become one’s key to the experience of others.

Learning to live for others isn’t something that just comes naturally to anybody. You have to train yourself to do it.

We have practiced diplomacy since the very beginning of the nation. Sometimes it has not worked, and we’ve had to go to war. I always believe you should try to find peace and reconciliation before conflict. That has been the approach I’ve taken.

Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand.

We never fully grasp the import of any true statement until we have a clear notion of what the opposite untrue statement would be.

There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we’d all love one another.

To be social is to be forgiving.

If I’m in a political argument, I think I can, with reasonable accuracy and without boasting, put the other person’s side of the case at least as well as they could. One has to be able to say that in any well-conducted argument.

People sacrifice the present for the future. But life is available only in the present. That is why we should walk in such a way that every step can bring us to the here and the now.

Every step of life shows much caution is required.

The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.

Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.

If one is master of one thing and understands one thing well, one has at the same time, insight into and understanding of many things.

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.

Strength and compassion are not mutually exclusive.

Between stimulus and response, there is a space where we choose our response.

Keep silence for the most part, and speak only when you must, and then briefly.

I just really believe people have to get hungry. I think maybe what we need to do, instead of trying to stuff our beliefs down people’s throats, is just pray for them to really be hungry and to see their neediness.

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.

I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, nor to hate them, but to understand them.

If you’re not careful to think and speak words of faith, worry will creep in, and it will not only steal your peace and joy, it will steal your ‚today.‘ The present is the greatest gift God ever gives us. So hold on to the peace that’s yours in Christ. Don’t let it go.

Love is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves without any insistence that they satisfy you.

We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.

All meanings, we know, depend on the key of interpretation.

No one can possibly know what is about to happen: it is happening, each time, for the first time, for the only time.

My position has always been, along with many other people, that any differences be resolved in a nonviolent way.

I don’t have a problem with Hulk Hogan. People say things and do things, and who am I to judge?

Don’t throw stones at your neighbors if your own windows are glass.

Arrange whatever pieces come your way.

Only that day dawns to which we are awake.

Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends… Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.

When you have enough understanding and compassion in you, then that amount of understanding and compassion will try to express itself in action. And your practice should help you to cultivate more understanding and compassion.

The foot feels the foot when it feels the ground.

You know how big love is? Love is big. love can hold anger; love can even hold hatred.

The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.

I’ve been to those places where it’s ‚poor, pitiful me.‘

There are so many emotions that you’re feeling, you can get stifled by them if you’re feeling them all at once. What I try to do is take one moment – one simple, simple feeling – and expand it into three-and-a-half minutes.

We can best help you to prevent war not by repeating your words and following your methods but by finding new words and creating new methods.

I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.

We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them.

When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?

Meditation has been a loyal friend to me. It has helped me write my books.

Small is the number of people who see with their eyes and think with their minds.

You can either be a host to God, or a hostage to your ego. It’s your call.

Nonviolence is a good policy when the conditions permit.

We go on in our pleasures thinking they’re going to last forever.

It’s so important to realize that every time you get upset, it drains your emotional energy. Losing your cool makes you tired. Getting angry a lot messes with your health.

We tend to mistake music for the physical object.

I shall the effect of this good lesson keeps as watchman to my heart.

Intense feeling too often obscures the truth.