“There it is!' he thought with rapture. 'When I was already in despair, and when it seemed there would be no end- there it is! She loves me. She's confessed it.”

“Mainly, though, the Democratic Party has become the party of reaction. In reaction to a war that is ill conceived, we appear suspicious of all military action. In reaction to those who proclaim the market can cure all ills, we resist efforts to use market principles to tackle pressing problems. In reaction to religious overreach, we equate tolerance with secularism, and forfeit the moral language that would help infuse our policies with a larger meaning. We lose elections and hope for the courts to foil Republican plans. We lost the courts and wait for a White House scandal. And increasingly we feel the need to match the Republican right in stridency and hardball tactics. The accepted wisdom that drives many advocacy groups and Democratic activists these days goes like this: The Republican Party has been able to consistently win elections not by expanding its base but by vilifying Democrats, driving wedges into the electorate, energizing its right wing, and disciplining those who stray from the party line. If the Democrats ever want to get back into power, then they will have to take up the same approach. ...Ultimately, though, I believe any attempt by Democrats to pursue a more sharply partisan and ideological strategy misapprehends the moment we're in. I am convinced that whenever we exaggerate or demonize, oversimplify or overstate our case, we lose. Whenever we dumb down the political debate, we lose. For it's precisely the pursuit of ideological purity, the rigid orthodoxy and the sheer predictability of our current political debate, that keeps us from finding new ways to meet the challenges we face as a country. It's what keeps us locked in "either/or" thinking: the notion that we can have only big government or no government; the assumption that we must either tolerate forty-six million without health insurance or embrace "socialized medicine". It is such doctrinaire thinking and stark partisanship that have turned Americans off of politics. ”

“We hear a great deal about the rudeness of the ris-  ing generation. I am an oldster myself and might be  expected to take the oldsters' side, but in fact I have  been far more impressed by the bad manners of par-  ents to children than by those of children to parents.  Who has not been the embarrassed guest at family  meals where the father or mother treated their  grown-up offspring with an incivility which, offered  to any other young people, would simply have termi-  nated the acquaintance? Dogmatic assertions on mat-  ters which the children understand and their elders  don't, ruthless interruptions, flat contradictions,  ridicule of things the young take seriously some-  times of their religion insulting references to their  friends, all provide an easy answer to the question  "Why are they always out? Why do they like every  house better than their home?" Who does not prefer  civility to barbarism?”

“It is a kingly act to assist the fallen.”

“God’s will is that we, as His people, be separated unto Him for His purpose. As believers, we should endeavor to pursue that sanctification at any cost.” 

“I wonder how much of our mental time is spent worrying, reasoning, and fearing—possibly more than is spent on anything else. Instead of meditating on our problems, let’s choose to meditate on the “alls” of God. He says you can cast “… [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you…” (1 Pet. 5:7). Let us realize how unlimited His power is and trust Him to do what we cannot do.”

“Hope says, “I’ll get healed sometime.” Heart faith says, “It’s mine now.”

“You can often outperform what other people think of you, but you will never outperform what you think of yourself.”

“It is not always easy. Your successes are unheralded -- your failures are trumpeted. I sometimes have that feeling myself."

“You are always dragging me down,' said I to my Body. 'Dragging _you_ down!' replied my Body. 'Well I like that! Who taught me to like tobacco and alcohol? You, of course, with your idiotic adolescent idea of being "grown up". My palate loathed both at first: but you would have your way. Who put an end to all those angry and revengeful thoughts last night? Me, of course, by insisting on going to sleep. Who does his best to keep you from talking too much and eating too much by giving you dry throats and headaches and indigestion? Eh?' 'And what about sex?' said I. 'Yes, what about it?' retorted the Body. 'If you and your wretched imagination would leave me alone I'd give you no trouble. That's Soul all over; you give me orders and then blame me for carrying them out.”

“If people stumble, we help them get back on their feet; if they veer off course, we urge them back. On this journey we are all brothers and sisters in the same family—the family of God.”

“When you truly love someone, you want to please and honor them by the way you act. How you treat someone shows whether or not you really care about them.”

“Prayer is the rope that pulls God and man together. But, it doesn’t pull God down to us: It pulls us up to Him.

“If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo. ”

“being a garbage dump for other people does not promote peace for me, and I want peace more than I want to know what is going on in everyone else’s life.”