"If compassion is so good for us, why don't we train our health care providers in compassion so that they can do what they're supposed to do, which is to transform suffering?"

"My work has been in the field of engaged Buddhism. That is my own practice, which began in 1965 that formed the base for the work I was doing in the civil rights and anti-war movement."

"For me, Buddhism is a psychology and a philosophy that provides a means, upayas, for working with the mind."

"When I first was exposed to Buddhism in the mid-1960s, I said it was so practical and utterly pragmatic. That's what attracted me to Buddhism."

"One keeps forgetting old age up to the very brink of the grave."

"I am more and more convinced that man is a dangerous creature and that power, whether vested in many or a few, is ever grasping, and like the grave, cries, 'Give, give.'"

"I was extended secret service protection during my presidential run in 1984, when I received the most death threats ever made toward a candidate."

"Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are the dead."