But every great scripture, whether Hebrew, Indian, Persian, or Chinese, apart from its religious value will be found to have some rare and special beauty of its own; and in this respect the original Bible stands very high as a monument of sublime poetry and of artistic prose.

To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.

Rumi who is one of the greatest Persian poets said that the truth was a mirror in the hands of God. It fell and broke into pieces. Everybody took a piece of it and they looked at it and thought they had the truth.

To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.

I call on the Iranian people: it is not too late to replace the corrupt regime and return to your glorious Persian heritage a heritage of culture and values and not of bombs and missiles... How can a nation allow a regime to instill fear take away the people's freedom and shock the young generation that seeks its way out of the dictatorial Iran.

As I have said for many years throughout this land we're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the future of human civilization. Every bit of that has to change.

But every great scripture whether Hebrew Indian Persian or Chinese apart from its religious value will be found to have some rare and special beauty of its own and in this respect the original Bible stands very high as a monument of sublime poetry and of artistic prose.