Empathy

Americans deserve more than tolerance from one another; we deserve each other's respect, whether we think each other right or wrong in our views, as long as our character and our sincerity merit respect.

We have so much more that unites us than divides us.

We need to develop cultures of peace, and cultures of peace require that we learn to listen to each other, that we learn to dialogue with each other, that we learn to respect each other.

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.

There is more in any human being to celebrate than to denigrate.

Our wounds are our best lessons, our life's biggest teachers. I have seen powerful love that has changed me forever. It has made me try to walk in other shoes, show more compassion and humility.

Our wounds are our best lessons, our life's biggest teachers.

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.

Human rights, security, and development, taken together, make up the idea of 'larger freedom.' A young man who has HIV, who cannot read or write, and who lives on the brink of starvation is not truly free — even if he can vote to choose his rulers.

Do not think you can look away from the injustice, the suffering, or the lack of true freedom that is the lot of so many people in our world today. Your future depends on their future.

Ease up on yourselves. Have some compassion for yourself as well as for others. There's no such thing as perfection, and life is not a race.

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