“Peace may sound simple - one beautiful word - but it requires everything we have, every quality, every strength, every dream, every high ideal.”

“Everything comes down to this: the reason for every word I have written and every word I will write. I am recounting my life for you so that you may know this secret without the pain of discovering it: We are unhappy because we think that love is something we require from someone else. Our salvation depends on a simple gesture that is nonetheless the most difficult act we can perform: We must give away the thing we most long for. Not to receive but to give.”

“I’ve learned that courage and compassion are two sides of the same coin, and that every warrior, every humanitarian, every citizen is built to live with both.“In fact, to win a war, to create peace, to save a life, or just to live a good life requires of us — of every one of us — that we be both good and strong.”

“I liked the sound of the word 'snail' every time I said it; the word was as small and simple as the creature itself.”

“Every human being has within him an ideal man, just as every piece of marble contains in a rough state a statue as beautiful as the one that Praxiteles the Greek made of the god Apollo.”

“Mothering, I believe, requires engaging every muscle, every nerve, every fiber of our being, and through it all we pray.”