Our moral faculties must be placed highest, else they can no more flourish than could a plant growing under the shade and drip of trees.

Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.

We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started.

The Church is not a gallery for the exhibition of eminent Christians, but a school for the education of imperfect ones.

Some men are like pyramids, which are very broad where they touch the ground, but grow narrow as they reach the sky.

As for marigolds, poppies, hollyhocks, and valorous sunflowers, we shall never have a garden without them, both for their own sake, and for the sake of old-fashioned folks, who used to love them.

A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on the road.

The thistle is a prince. Let any man that has an eye for beauty take a view of the whole plant, and where will he see a more expressive grace and symmetry; and where is there a more kingly flower?

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of you. Never excuse yourself.

He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has.

Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.

Most people ignore most poetry because poetry ignores most people.

Instead I’ve built a house made of lies that have come crashing down around me.

My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.

Until one has loved an animal a part of one's soul remains unawakened.

Think of your woods and orchards without birds! Of empty nests that cling to boughs and beams As in an idiot's brain remembered words Hang empty 'mid the cobwebs of his dreams!

It is impossible to state in words how much this team means to me, how much Hulu means to me.

I married a woman who's not going to take anything. No slips. She's very accountable, and she holds me very accountable.

Appeasement was never a very clever policy, and it should not be our option today.

I'm super-obsessed with law enforcement. I'm what you'd call a 'cop fan.

The poet's function is to make his imagination . . . become the light in the mind of others. His role, in short, is to help people to live their lives.