Lightly, my darling, lightly. Even when it comes to dying. Nothing ponderous, or portentous, or emphatic. No rhetoric, no tremolos, no self-conscious persona putting on its celebrated imitation of Christ or Goethe or Little Nell. And, of course, no theology, no metaphysics. Just the fact of dying and the fact of the Clear Light. So throw away all your baggage and go forward. There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet, trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That's why you must walk so lightly . . . —Gary Snyder, "Piute Creek More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
It is within my power either to serve God, or not to serve Him. Serving Him I add to my own good and the good of the whole world. Not serving Him, I forfeit my own good and deprive the world of that good, which was in my power to create. —Leo Tolstoy More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
The seed of God is in us. Given an intelligent and hard-working farmer, it will thrive and grow up to God, whose seed it is; and accordingly its fruits will be God-nature. Pear seeds grow into pear trees, nut seeds into nut trees, and God seed into God. —Meister Eckhart More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
A drunken man who falls out of a cart, though he may suffer, does not die. His bones are the same as other people's; but he meets his accident in a different way. His spirit is in a condition of security. He is not conscious of riding in the cart; neither is he conscious of falling out of it. Ideas of life, death, fear and the like cannot penetrate his breast; and so he does not suffer from contact with objective existence. If such security is to be got from wine, how much more is it to be got from God? —Chuang Tzu More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
. . . as long as Christ knew I wasn't a sissy, I had nothing to fear. —Tiny Tim More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
In shallow men the fish of little thoughts cause much commotion. In oceanic minds the whales of inspiration make hardly a ruffle. —From Hindu Scriptures More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Saintliness is not dumbness. Divine perceptions are not incapacitating. The active expression of virtue gives rise to the keenest intelligence. —Sri Yukteswar More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
You have everything in you that Buddha has, that Christ has, you've got it all. But only when you start to acknowledge it is it going to get interesting. Your problem is you're afraid to acknowledge your own beauty. You're too busy holding on to your own unworthiness. You'd rather be a schnook sitting before some great man. That fits in more with who you think you are. Well, enough already. I sit before you and I look and I see your beauty, even if you don't. —Ram Dass, Grist for the Mill More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
If the anti-abortion movement took a tenth of the energy they put into noisy theatrics and devoted it to improving the lives of children who have been born into lives of poverty, violence, and neglect, they could make a world shine. —Michael Jay Tucker More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
I am politically pro-choice, but personally pro-life. I have my faith but refuse to force it on the world at large — especially this world, so brutal and unjust. I cannot make these wrenching personal life-and-death decisions for others — nor do I believe they should be made by a Church run by childless men. —Julianna Baggott More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Society does not need more children; but it does need more loved children. Quite literally, we cannot afford unloved children — but we pay heavily for them every day. . . . All society should rise up in alarm when it hears that a baby that is not wanted is about to be born. —Garrett Hardin More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
In my world, you don't get to call yourself "pro-life" and be against common-sense gun control. . . . You don't get to call yourself "pro-life" and want to shut down the Environmental Protection Agency. . . . You don't get to call yourself "pro-life" and oppose programs like Head Start that provide basic education, health, and nutrition for the most disadvantaged children. . . . The term "pro-life" should be a shorthand for respect for the sanctity of life. But I will not let that label apply to people for whom sanctity for life begins at conception and ends at birth. —Thomas L. Friedman More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
How come when it's us, it's an abortion, and when it's a chicken, it's an omelet? —George Carlin More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
I cannot understand anti-abortion arguments that center on the sanctity of life. As a species we've fairly comprehensively demonstrated that we don't believe in the sanctity of life. The shrugging acceptance of war, famine, epidemic, pain, and life-long grinding poverty shows us that . . . we've made only the most feeble of efforts to really treat human life as sacred. —Caitlin Moran More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
A woman who has [an abortion] is almost always in a desperate situation, and her decision is not made lightly. She deserves Christian compassion, not . . . self-righteous scorn. —Jean Peterman More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email