An evening wind uprose too, and the slighter branches cracked and rattled as they moved, in skeleton dances, to its moaning music.

Happiness is a gift and the trick is not to expect it, but to delight in it when it comes.

A loving heart is the truest wisdom.

A man is lucky if he is the first love of a woman. A woman is lucky if she is the last love of a man.

The most important thing in life is to stop saying 'I wish' and start saying 'I will.' Consider nothing impossible, then treat possibilities as probabilities.

Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.

Do all the good you can and make as little fuss about it as possible.

A very little key will open a very heavy door.

The whole difference between construction and creation is exactly this: that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists.

Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many - not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.

Those who complain never love, those who love, never complain.

When you want really big money you usually find yourself talking to people who didn't go to Eton.

I prefer to write music for family films. I like people.

The tender heart, the broken and contrite spirit, are to me far above all the joys that I could ever hope for in this vale of tears.

I've seen death and I didn't like it.

There is no substitute for hardwork. Always be humble and hungry.

I'm very open in terms of sharing bits about my life, but I think it's very easy to get a distorted sense of who anyone is through social media.

When they talk about family values, it's in a repressive way, as if our American tradition were only the Puritan tradition or the 19th century oppressive tradition. The Christian tradition.

When I feel like being a director, I write a novel.

Joy begins with our convictions about spiritual truths we're willing to bet our lives on, and truths that are lodged so deeply within us that they produce a settled assurance about God.