“One of the greatest challenges today is the relationship between unity and diversity. If we don't have a sense of what holds us together, what unites us - our common humanity and a common earth, a common creation, a common cosmos - then our differences, our diversity, will become cause for division and conflict, one seeking to dominate the other. But if we have a sense of what unites us, then our differences, our diversity, will enrich our lives.-Bishop Mark S Hanson”

“So, let us not be blind to our differences--but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.”

“Our uniqueness is what makes us common. It is the same fact that we are unique that we as individuals have in common.”

“In a world of diversity, and cultural differences... there's no such thing as 'common' sense.”

“What we have to do... is to find a way to celebrate our diversity and debate our differences without fracturing our communities. ”

“I stood there in the kitchen, watching her staring across the meadow still searching for her nemesis and I thought, suddenly, that this is all our lives - this is the one fact that applies to us all, that makes us what we are, our common mortality, our common humanity. One day someone is going to come and take us away: you don't need to have been a spy, I thought, to feel like this.”