The greater are our affections the deeper are our afflictions, and the more we love the more we have to weep.

Human beings are curious, and especially curious about other human beings.

During times of disaster sorrow brings people together in a spirit of friendship, and influences man to recognize the blessings of becoming his brother's keeper.

Did people always have to wait for pestilence or war or tragedy to be shocked into forgetting about themselves?

We do not need answers or formulas to minister in crisis.

Part of acknowledging suffering is acknowledging we need help. It is much easier to practice compassion if you have the energy and support of a community.

My friends, I wish with all my heart that you do not make the same mistake. The next time you are suffering, if this suffering was caused by the person you love most in the world, have recourse to right action and say the fourth mantra: "Dear one, I am suffering deeply. I need you to help me to get out of this suffering. I need you to explain this to me." This is the language of true love.

If you are happy, all of us will profit from it. Society will profit from it. All living beings will profit from it.

You must always check things out by going to the person in question and asking for his or her help: "Dear one, I am suffering so much, help me please.

Contemplation in the age of Auschwitz and Dachau, Solovky and Karaganda is something darker and more fearsome than contemplation in the age of the Church Fathers. For that very reason, the urge to seek a path of spiritual light can be a subtle temptation to sin. It certainly is sin if it means a frank rejection of the burden of our age, an escape into unreality and spiritual illusion, so as not to share the misery of other men.

Thank God! I am only another member of the human race, like all the rest of them... As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now that I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.

I will have more joy in heaven and in the contemplation of God, if you are also there to share it with me; and the more of us there will be to share it the greater will be the joy of all.