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Kindle Notes & Highlights
God said, “It wasn’t I who organized the fair. In fact, I’d be too ashamed to visit it.”
“Me?” replied Jesus, visibly excited by the game. “Oh, I’m not rooting for either side. I’m just enjoying the game.” The questioner turned to his neighbor and sneered, “Hmm, an atheist!” We took him up on this after the game. Was he in the habit of never taking sides? “I side with people rather than religions,” said Jesus, “human beings rather than Sabbath.”
“Pagans are people who do not quarrel about religion.”
People are not naturally cruel. They become cruel when they are unhappy—or when they succumb to an ideology.
Compassion has no ideology.
“Now that I am an old man and my days are numbered, my one prayer is, ‘Lord, give me the grace to change myself.’ If I had prayed for this right from the start I should not have wasted my life.”
He was a difficult man. He thought differently and acted differently from the rest of us. He questioned everything. Was he a rebel or a prophet or a psychopath or a hero? “Who can tell the difference?” we said. “And who cares, anyway?” So we socialized him.
society that domesticates its rebels has gained its peace. But it has lost its future.
Can one expect to see a perfect apple with an imperfect eye? Or detect goodness in others when one’s own heart is selfish?
“A hand that is always open or always closed is a crippled hand. A bird that cannot open and close its wings cannot fly.”
brought me so much joy to think that if I had not sinned God would have no occasion to be forgiving.
THE COCONUT A monkey on a tree hurled a coconut at the head of a Sufi. The man picked it up, drank the milk, ate the flesh, and made a bowl from the shell. Thank you for your criticism of me.
“You must first empty your heart of all created things.”
Misleading! Don’t be afraid to fill your heart with the people and things you love, for the love of God won’t occupy space in your heart any more than a singer’s voice occupies space in a concert hall.
Love is not like a loaf of bread. If I give a chunk of the loaf to you I have less to offer to others.
You can love your mother with your whole heart; and your husband or wife; and each of your children. The wonder is that giving the whole of it to one person does not force you to give less to another. On the contrary, each one of them now gets more. For if you love only your friend and no one else it is a feeble heart that you offer. Your friend would stand to gain if you also gave it to others.
