As paint needs a canvass for its beauty to show, stars need darkness for their splendor to shine.

A genuine smile is one of the world’s rarest treasures.

A fish that is afraid of drowning in a river is ignorant of its gifts.

A diamond earns its sparkle from the pressure it endures.

It is in the storm, not the calm, that a rainbow is born.

A determined seed cannot be hidden from the world, not even by dirt.

Calm skies don't make skillful eagles.

If you cry in the rain, only the sky will see your tears.

Birds keep singing beautiful songs, even if they have no audience.

Today's storms help you appreciate tomorrow’s sunshine.

Train the ears to hear more, the eyes to see more, the hands to do more, the feet to accomplish more, the mind to think more, the heart to feel more, and the soul to love more.

God allows us to live in the time of harvest to experience the joy of the harvest

My background is deep and set in deep time, and in a narrow space, oral traditions going back a long, long time, which I inherited by osmosis.

It's human nature to be curious about people, and to be more curious about young people than old people. We want to cheer something on at the same time we want to tear it down. That's just so normal.

People say I train dogs, but in many ways I train people.

It can be hard to find time sometimes, but it's all about motivating yourself. I do whatever I can whenever I can.

You reach into cyberspace and you grab some cyber stuff, build it up, and the computer will give you a 360 of it.

Nothing renders a nation so despicable as religious despotism.

Human values should predominate in men's thoughts. Human life has no meaning without these values.

[I enjoy] working with yeast, tempering chocolate and figuring out why an end product is successful or not.

Those who excel in war first cultivate their own humanity and and maintain their laws and institutions. By these means they make their governments invincible.