There are three kinds of patriots, two bad, one good. The bad are the uncritical lovers and the loveless critics. Good patriots carry on a lover’s quarrel with their country.

We must guard against being too individualistic... Christ is born to bring hope and joy also to whole communities of people – the exiles, the deported, the tortured, the silenced.

And if we are not yet one in live at least we are one in sin, which is no mean bond because it preludes the possibility of separation through judgment.

There are two ways to be powerful. One is to seek and acquire power, the other is not to need it. There are also two ways to be rich. One is to gain riches, and the other is not to need them.

It is bad religion to deify doctrines and creeds... Doctrines, let’s not forget, supported slavery and apartheid... Moreover, doctrines can divide while compassion can only unite.

We don’t have to be “successful,” only valuable. We don’t have to make money, only a difference, and particularly in the lives society counts least and puts last.

Spirituality means to me living the ordinary life extraordinarily well. As the old-church father said, ‘The glory of God is a human being fully alive.

The consequences of the past are always with us, and half the hostilities tearing the world apart could be resolved today were we to allow the forgiveness of sins to alter these consequences... if we were to say of ourselves, ‘The hostility stops here.

Joy is the most important Christian emotion. Duty calls only when gratitude fails to prompt.

Diversity may be the hardest thing for a society to live with, and perhaps the most dangerous thing for a society to be without.