“...and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky...”

“If he could smell the pre-spice mass, that meant the gasses deep under the sand were nearing explosive pressure.”

“The turning points of lives are not the great moments. The real crises are often concealed in occurrences so trivial in appearance that they pass unobserved.”

“Although we do not always have the power to change every unpleasant circumstance in our lives, we do have the power to change our outlook. We can look out at life from our inmost being with our hearts filled with positive thoughts and attitudes, or we can respond as Charlie did—allowing the events of life to shape our thoughts and attitudes. This is a decision that only we can make—no one can make it for us!”

“A team is a group of people who may not be equal in experience, talent, or education but in commitment.”

“Maybe the critics are right. Maybe there's no escaping our great political divide, an endless clash of armies, and any attempts to alter the rules of engagement are futile. Or maybe the trivialization of politics has reached a point of no return, so that most people see it as just one more diversion, a sport, with politicians our paunch-bellied gladiators and those who bother to pay attention just fans on the sidelines: We paint our faces red or blue and cheer our side and boo their side, and if it takes a late hit or cheap shot to beat the other team, so be it, for winning is all that matters. But I don't think so. They are out there, I think to myself, those ordinary citizens who have grown up in the midst of all the political and cultural battles, but who have found a way-in their own lives, at least- to make peace with their neighbors, and themselves. ...I imagine they are waiting for a politics with the maturity to balance idealism and realism, to distinguish between what can and cannot be compromised, to admit the possibility that the other side might sometimes have a point. They don't always understand the arguments between right and left, conservative and liberal, but they recognize the difference between dogma and common sense, responsibility and irresponsibility, between those things that last and those that are fleeting. They are out there, waiting for Republicans and Democrats to catch up with them.”

“No one can make you jealous, angry, vengeful, or greedy; unless you let him.”

“Faith implies four things: self-renunciation, reliance with utter confidence on Christ, obedience, and a changed life.”

“A tendancy to melancholy...let it be observed, is a misfortune, not a fault.”

“We are living in a topsy-turvy world, where all is confusion. But you may be sure that it is confusion with a plan—Satan’s plan!”

“If by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people-their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties-someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal", then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal.”

“Maybe you once were excited about that person God supernaturally brought into your life as a marriage partner, but now all the excitement has worn off. Don’t’ allow that sense of a miracle to slip away. Don’t get so familiar with each other that you take one another for granted.”

“Whatever your life's work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.”

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

“Step number one to receiving answered prayer is decide what you want from God and find the scripture or scriptures that definitely promise you these things.”