"I've got a lot of experience with eating and with fasting. Part of the reason people fast, especially in a spiritual and religious context, is to understand that you don't need food as much as you think you do. … The main source of energy is the sun. … the energy we get from food is energy plants have metabolized through photosynthesis and then some animal eats it and it goes into the animal's tissue and then we eat their tissue. There are other ways to access energy. … The religions are many, but God is one. I believe based on what I've studied, all religions say the same thing but in different ways."

"Governments are not built to perceive large truths. Only people can perceive great truths. Governments specialize in small and intermediate truths. They have to be instructed by their people in great …"

"We need to restrain ourselves in what we say about other religions, in how we judge other faiths. We don't need new laws. We cannot restrict freedom of speech. We need to restrict ourselves. Otherwise…"

"From the top of the campanile, or Giotto's bell tower, in Florence, one can look out over the city in all directions, past the stone banking houses where the rich Medici lived, past the art galleries …"

"From the moment painting ceased to be religious it started to decay, so that now it has reached a childishness that borders on idiocy. People who admire it are even greater idiots than those who paint…"