"You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; in just the same way, you learn to love by loving."

"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it."

"When religions begin to see the source of their vitality as a (finite) struggle with one or more alternative belief systems, they are quickly diminished. By initiating the Crusades against the Saracens, Christianity all but destroyed itself, irrespective of its victories and defeats on the battlefield. What typically occurs in such competitive expressions of power is that each side begins to take shape as a political entity and to lose its deeper religious resonance. The hostile encounter of Islamic and Western nations over the recent decades has led both Muslims and Christians to confuse religion with the political order—whether that be empire (Rome), tyranny (Nazi Germany), or republic (US). Many Muslims dream of a unified caliphate, or a kind of Islamic monarchy. Many Americans, on the other hand, have come to think of their country as a Christian nation. Each way of thinking and acting places both religions in acute peril. Part of the genius of the great religions is that they can thrive in every sort of state and culture, free of identifying with anything beyond themselves. When belief is confused with citizenship, havoc is sure to follow. Both take on an absolutism that no religion would claim for itself."