Man is emphatically self-made.

God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission.

To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.

Life passes, riches fly away, popularity is fickle, the senses decay, the world changes. One alone is true to us; One alone can be all things to us; One alone can supply our need.

Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning.

If we are intended for great ends, we are called to great hazards.

It is often said that second thoughts are best. So they are in matters of judgment but not in matters of conscience.

We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe.

Cruelty to animals is as if humans did not love God.

I sought to hear the voice of God and climbed the topmost steeple, but God declared: "Go down again - I dwell among the people.

When you feel in need of a compliment, give one to someone else.

If Gratitude were a tree in a Bountiful orchard...Grace would be it's Seed bearing fruit.

Old people, who have felt blows and toil and known the world's hard hand, need, even more than children do, a woman's tenderness.

I said, other people can write songs, let's see if I can. So the first 400 or 500 wound up on the floor somewhere. Then I wrote one called Melissa.

How would you describe the worst run you ever had? Precious!

In the sense that I also try to reflect the fullness of the black experience, I’m very much a jazz poet.

Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you

I believe that it is an unchanging value of democracy that ends cannot justify the means in politics.

What about putting Christ back into Christmas? It is simply not necessary. Christ has never left Christmas.

God employs different strategies for different places or purposes

Those that he loved so long and sees no more, Loved and still loves,-not dead, but gone before,- He gathers round him.