“I think we are doing poor sex education if we don't look at how erotic behavior actually takes place, and offer people interventions that are reasonable. - Pat Califia”

“Why didn't you come sooner?I offered them no excuses that day, but I did know that there were reasons. Reasons that, when we hear God's call, when we feel that gentle (or not so gentle) urging of God's Spirit for us to make a bold step, take a risk, serve others, save a life, commit - we so often hold back.It's because we don't feel empowered.We don't feel qualified.We think we lack the courage, the strength, the wisdom, the money, the experience, the education, the organization, the backing.We feel like Moses...Not me, God. I'm afraid. Weak. Poor. Stupid.Unqualified.Daunted....It has never been my desire to be daunted, to be afraid, to be unable to respond to God's call.”

“A well-known principle of human behavior says that when we ask someone to do us a favor we will be more successful if we provide a reason. People simply like to have reasons for what they do.”

“If people are troubled by their view, they ought to offer these New Orleanians, and black and poor people in the places like the Lower Ninth Ward around the country, a reason to believe otherwise.”

“We are inclined to think of hunters and gatherers as poor because they don't have anything; perhaps better to think of them for that reason as free.”

“I am tired of people saying that poor character is the only reason people do wrong things. Actually, circumstances cause people to act a certain way. It's from those circumstances that a person's attitude is affected followed by weakening of character. Not the reverse. If we had no faults of our own, we should not take so much pleasure in noticing those in others and judging their lives as either black or white, good or bad. We all live our lives in shades of gray.”