Before you wear a crown of gold, life sometimes makes you wear a crown of thorns.

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.

In every tyrant's heart there springs in the end this poison, that he cannot trust a friend.

Meditation is not about stopping thoughts, but recognizing that we are more than our thoughts and our feelings.

Even when we lose an arm or a leg, there's not less of us but more. Human experience weighs more than human tissue.

Multitasking divides your attention and leads to confusion and weakened focus.

I hope more people decide to become organ donors.

I'm not staying away from any genre. I'm trying to get scripts that I like.

No matter how old you get, hug and kiss your mother whenever you greet her.

Many are concerned about the monuments of the West and the East -- to know who built them. For my part, I should like to know who in those days did not build them -- who were above such trifling.

Good is good, but better carrieth it.

I feel like today we always glorify the young, just-plucked-from-college writer. But it's much harder to start writing later, in middle age, struggling on a book around a full-time job and family.