A tool is but the extension of a man's hand and a machine is but a complex tool. He that invents a machine augments the power of a man and the well being of mankind.

Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.

We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started.

The Church is not a gallery for the exhibition of eminent Christians, but a school for the education of imperfect ones.

Some men are like pyramids, which are very broad where they touch the ground, but grow narrow as they reach the sky.

As for marigolds, poppies, hollyhocks, and valorous sunflowers, we shall never have a garden without them, both for their own sake, and for the sake of old-fashioned folks, who used to love them.

A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on the road.

The thistle is a prince. Let any man that has an eye for beauty take a view of the whole plant, and where will he see a more expressive grace and symmetry; and where is there a more kingly flower?

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of you. Never excuse yourself.

He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has.

Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.

But it's not the pressure of data that gives rise to the understanding. It's, on the contrary, the child's own struggle to make sense of the data

To allow your time evaporate each day without a product to show for it is to allow your life evaporate into vanity.

Anger is the most impotent of passions. It effects nothing it goes about, and hurts the one who is possessed by it more than the one against whom it is directed.

Make not, when you work a deed of shame, The scoundrel's plea, 'My forbears did the same.

He was holding his breath so as not to inhale the odor of democracy.

Jesus died for our sins," Noah says solemnly. "What?!?" I reply, choking back my thoughts. "I was just seeing if you were listening.

I want to say that, in general, when it works, open adoption is great.

Honor your parents by not judging them. Give them the benefit of doubt.

The brain can be seen as a complex machine, like a gooey computer.

I don't have to write about the future. For most people, the present is enough like the future to be pretty scary.