I'm not Buddhist, but I am drawn to it because it seems the most beneficial of organised religions and the most compassionate.

I really want to understand the mind so I can be more comfortable with the way people are. Being comfortable with people is incredibly important.

I would go to the deeps a hundred times to cheer a downcast spirit. It is good for me to have been afflicted, that I might know how to speak a word in season to one that is weary.

In Asian languages, the word for 'mind' and the word for 'heart' are same. So if you're not hearing mindfulness in some deep way as heartfulness, you're not really understanding it. Compassion and kindness towards oneself are intrinsically woven into it. You could think of mindfulness as wise and affectionate attention.

The same love and graciousness as though I were a queen already and not wretched little Much-Afraid." Then she looked up into his face and for a little time could say no more, but at last she added, "My Lord, I cannot tell you how greatly I want to regard others in the same way.

Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.

Those who are compassionate when they should be tough will be tough when they should be compassionate.

When you show deep empathy toward others, their defensive energy goes down, and positive energy replaces it. That's when you can get more creative in solving problems.

Washington is a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm.

What are the things that you can't see that are important? I would say justice, truth, humility, service, compassion, love...They're the guiding lights of a life.

The most important medicine is tender love and care.

I wish that people who are conventionally supposed to love each other would say to each other, when they fight, "Please - a little less love, and a little more common decency."