“Charity is one of those remarkable words that helps to identify the fault lines of a culture.”

“there is a point, moreover, at which the unfortunate and the infamous are associated and confounded in a single word, Les Miserables; whose fault is it? And then, is it not when the fall is lowest that charity ought to be greatest?”

“Charity erodes the cultural prerequisites for a vigorous democracy.”

“How can we know the true meaning of charity if we don't even know how to help those closest to us?”

“What I love about the ministry of Jesus is that he identified the poor as blessed and the rich as needy...and then he went and ministered to them both. This, I think, is the difference between charity and justice. Justice means moving beyond the dichotomy between those who need and those who supply and confronting the frightening and beautiful reality that we desperately need one another.”

“Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions; but those who kindly reprove thy faults.”