I do not speak for my church on public matters; and the church does not speak for me.

Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.

This country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor.

Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.

One person can make a difference, and everyone should try.

No responsibility of government is more fundamental than the responsibility of maintaining the highest standard of ethical behavior for those who conduct the public business.

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.

Don't pray for an easy life, pray to be a stronger man.

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

When someone loves you, they always think you're beautiful. Those who don't see your beauty can't really see you at all.

As every cat owner knows, nobody owns a cat.

Life moved ever outward into infinite possibilities and yet all things were perfect and finished in every single moment, their end attained.

Forgiveness is always free. But that doesn't mean that confession is always easy. Sometimes it is hard. Incredibly hard. It is painful to admit our sins and entrust ourselves to God's care.

The Companion of Honour I regarded as an award from the country for 50 years of work - which I thought was okay.

I tend to worry about the minutiae of life. But living in the mountains of Idaho and having retreated from fame, I am more in tune with life.

If one by one we counted people out For the least sin, it wouldn't take us long To get so we had no one left to live with. For to be social is to be forgiving.

If you saw a heat wave, would you wave back?

Do you know that drawing with words is also an art... ?

Something in me was changed by Lincoln in the Bardo, and the great sublime/grotesque risk of [George Saunders'] ghosts was a part of it.