I suppose in the end the whole of life becomes an act of letting go. But what always hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye.

The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each heart. Meanwhile, the lot of widows and homeless children is very hard, and it is...

…nature as a whole was an exceptionally fine illustration of science.

The three-toed sloth lives a peaceful, vegetarian life in perfect harmony with its environment. A good-natured smile is forever on its lips…I have seen that smile with my own eyes. I am not one given...

To me, religion is about our dignity, not our depravity.

Don’t you bully me with your politeness! Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer. What is your problem...

The individual soul touches upon the world soul like a well reaches for the water table. That which sustains the universe beyond thought and language, and that which is at the core of us and...

Just beyond the ticket booth Father had painted on a wall in bright red letters the question: DO YOU KNOW WHICH IS THE MOST DANGEROUS ANIMAL IN THE ZOO? An arrow pointed to a small...

My feelings can perhaps be imagined, but they can hardly be described.

But it was hard, oh, it was hard. Faith in God is an opening up, a letting go, a deep trust, a free act of love–but sometimes it was so hard to love. Sometimes my...

You might think I lost all hope at that point. I did. And as a result I perked up and felt much better.

…if you fall into a lion’s pit, the reason the lion will tear you to pieces is not because it’s hungry-be assured, zoo animals are amply fed-or because it’s bloodthirsty, but because you’ve invaded it’s...

I wish I could convey the perfection of a seal slipping into water or a spider monkey swinging from point to point or a lion merely turning its head. But language founders in such seas....

When I corrected her, I told her that in fact she was not so wrong; that Hindus, in their capacity for love, are indeed hairless Christians, just as Muslims, in the way they see God...

If you stumble at mere believability, what are you living for? […] Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist.

As for fame, fame felt like nothing. Fame was not a sensation like love or hunger or loneliness, welling from within and invisible to the outside eye. It was rather entirely external, coming from the...

I must say a word about fear. It is life’s only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law...

Remember that your days on this earth are counted and you might as well make the best of those you have left.

All living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways.

If Christ spent an anguished night in prayer, if He burst out from the Cross, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ then surely we are also permitted doubt. But we must move...

If there’s only one nation in the sky, shouldn’t all passports be valid for it?

Time and sunshine healed a sore, but the process was slow, and new boils appeared if I didn’t stay dry.

..the most dangerous animal in a zoo is Man.

God is universal,” spluttered the priest.The imam nodded strong approval. “There is only one God.””And with their one god Muslims are always causing troubles and provoking riots. The proof of how bad Islam is, is...

Some of us give up on life with only a resigned sigh. Others fight a little, then lose hope. Still others-and I am one of those-never give up. We fight and fight and fight. We...

Kematian selalu membuntuti Kehidupan dengan begitu dekat, bukanlah karena keharusan biologis, melainkan karena rasa iri. Kehidupan ini begitu indah, sehingga maut pun jatuh cinta padanya. Cinta yang pencemburu dan posesif, yang menyambar apapun yang bisa...

To lose a brother is to lose someone with whom you can share the experience of growing old, who is supposed to bring you a sister-in-law and nieces and nephews, creatures who people the tree...

Art is rooted in joy.

The reason death sticks so closely to life isn’t biological necessity- its envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can.

I’ll be honest about it. It is not atheists who get stuck in my craw, but agnostics. Doubt is useful for a while. We must all pass through the garden of Gethsemane. If Christ played...

It’s a misery peculiar to would-be writers. Your theme is good, as are your sentences. Your characters are so ruddy with life they practically need birth certificates. The plot you’ve mapped out for them is...

It seems to be a law of human nature that those who live by the sea are suspiciousof swimmers, just as those who live in the mountains are suspicious of mountainclimbers.

Despair was a heavy blackness that let no light in or out. It was a hell beyond expression.

I’ve never forgotten him. Dare I say I miss him? I do. I miss him. I still see him in my dreams. They are nightmares mostly, but nightmares tinged with love. Such is the strangeness...

He seems to be attracting religions the way a dog attracts fleas.

If God on the Cross is God shamming a human tragedy, it turns the Passion of Christ into the Farce of Christ. The death of the Son must be real. Father Martin assured me it...

Cinta sulit dipercaya, tanyakan pada siapapun yang sedang jatuh cinta.Kehidupan ini juga sulit dipercaya, tanyakan pada ilmuwan manapun.Tuhan juga sulit dipercaya, tanyakan pada siapapun yang memercayainya.Kenapa Anda tidak menerima hal-hal yang sulit dipercaya?

Slice a pear and you will find that its flesh is incandescent white. It glows with inner light. Those who carry a knife and a pear are never afraid of the dark.

But I want to pray to Allah. I want to be a Christian.

There are animals we haven’t stopped by. Don’t think they’re harmless. Life will defend itself no matter how small it is.

It’s not atheists who get stuck in my caw, but agnostics. Doubt is useful for awhile. We all must pass through the garden of Gethsemane. If Christ played with doubt, so must we… But we...

I challenge anyone to understand Islam, its spirit, and not to love it. It is a beautiful religion of brotherhood and devotion.

There’s no peace like the peace of an inner courtyard on a sunny day.

It’s important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go. Otherwise you are left with words you should have said but never did, and your heart is heavy with remorse. That...

To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.

We are all born like Catholics . . . in limbo, without religion.

When you’ve suffered a great deal in life, each additional pain is both unbearable and trifling.

I did not grasp all these details – and many more – right away. They came to my notice with time and as a result of necessity. I would be in the direst of dire...

I was giving up. I would have given up – if a voice hadn’t made itself heard in my heart. The voice said “I will not die. I refuse it. I will make it through...

Let that be a reminder to you that the past is one thing, but what we make of it, the conclusions we draw, is another. History can be many things, depending on how we read...