Philosophy

Imagination is cultivated, above all, by courses in the arts and humanities. It is in some ways the most essential of all, if we are to work toward a world in which we see distant lives as spacious and deep.

Who am I, really? All of us have easy public answers to the identity question. But we also know, deep inside, that these are just the superficial, transitory expressions of who we are.

The corollary to carpe diem is gratitude — gratitude for simply being alive, for having a day to seize. The taking of breath, the beating of the heart.

Art is an irreplaceable way of understanding and expressing the world, equal to but distinct from scientific and conceptual methods.

Faith and reason are knitted together in the human soul. So don't leave home without either one.

I see the otherness of the other, which appeals to me. In fact, it is the otherness of the other that makes me who I am.

The most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about.

Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive.

The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day. That is real freedom.

The most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about.

Learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience.

Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe, the realest, most vivid and important person in existence. It is our default setting, hardwired into our boards at birth.