Thinking is the ultimate human resource.
Essentially, I’m a very real person; good and bad. And the public image is one of being very good, I suppose. But one of the reasons I’m attracted to people like Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, Christ, to pacifism, is because naturally, I’m the guy that would not turn the other cheek – but, when people see you’re attracted to that, they think you are that.
Entrepreneurial capitalism takes more people out of poverty than aid.
The right to be ridiculous is something I hold dear.
I don’t believe the devil, I don’t believe his book, but the truth is not the same without the lies he made up.
I can’t change the world but I can change the world in me.
Whenever you see darkness, there is extraordinary opportunity for the light to burn brighter.
If you stop taking chances, you’ll stay where you sit. You won’t live any longer, but it’ll feel like it.
It’s not only joy as an act of defiance; it’s business as usual as an act of defiance. This is just: Do your thing.
Peace is the opposite of dreaming. It’s built slowly and surely through brutal compromises and tiny victories that you don’t even see. It’s a messy business, bringing peace into the world.
Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice; it makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties; it doubts our concern, and it questions our commitment. Six and a half thousand Africans are still dying every day of preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can buy at any drug store. This is not about charity: This is about Justice and Equality.
ISIS and these kinds of extremists are a death cult. We’re a life cult. Rock ’n’ roll is a life force, and it’s joy as an act of defiance.
In an atomic pile an explosion is prevented by inserting rods of cadmium, which mop up the particles that are shooting around. In this way the energy in the pile is controlled. If there are too many rods, the chain reaction stops and the pile can no longer produce any energy. People who are unable to appreciate new ideas are like the rods: some of them are necessary to prevent a destructive explosion, but too many make it impossible for the pile to produce any energy.
Someone has likened prayer to being on a rough sea in a small boat with no oars. All you have is a rope that, somewhere in the distance, is attached to the port. With that rope you can pull yourself closer to God. Songs are my prayers.
The arc of the moral universe does not bend toward justice. It has to be bent, and this requires sheer force of will. It demands our sharpest focus and most concentrated effort. History does not move in a straight line; it has to be dragged, kicking and screaming, all the way down the line.
The elephant in the room” is a phrase I enjoy, having at different times been either elephant or room. We can lose ourselves in situations or conversations and miss the obvious. We’re looking for someone to save us or a solution to a problem, and they’re right in front of us hiding in plain sight.
There’s stuff you can learn from people who don’t tell you anything. Like how not to react when there is a crisis. Like how to stay still and maybe even unearth levity from the seriousness of a situation. Edge is the silence inside every noise. He’s the light inside the paint.
It takes great faith to have no faith.
You can disagree on everything but still work together on one thing... if that one thing is important enough.
I mostly find religiosity annoying, right up at the top of the annoying is the pigheaded certainty of the devout without the doubt.