Readers soon tire of prefaces, and skip them, and so the labor of writing them is lost.

No influence is so powerful as that of the mother.

The temple of our purest thoughts is silence.

It requires but a few threads of hope, for the heart that is skilled in the secret, to weave a web of happiness.

Rugged strength and radiant beauty-- These were one in Nature's plan; Humble toil and heavenward duty-- These will form the perfect man.

There is no impossibility to him who stands prepared to conquer every hazard. The fearful are the failing.

There is small danger of being starved in our land of plenty; but the danger of being stuffed is imminent.

... rights are liable to be perverted to wrongs when we are incapable of rightly exercising them.

The most welcome guest in society will ever be the one to whose mind everything is a suggestion, and whose words suggest something to everybody.

There can be no education without leisure; and without leisure, education is worthless.

Water is the grand epic of creation; and there is not a human soul but feels the influence of its majesty, its power, or its beauty.

Enlightenment arrives like a thief in the middle of the dark night of the soul.

Love is God, and the one that believes in love, believes in God.

A leader is not just a person who gives orders. He is also the one who symbolises the society he leads. If the leader is corrupt, then the society must be corrupt too.

I know personally the transforming power of the Word of God-it's changed my life.

Not every man with a heart is understanding, nor every man with an ear a listener, and nor every man with eyes able to see.

New Zealand is a pretty no-nonsense place to work, like Australia. I mean it doesn't falter to anyone.

There's a saying I read recently; I painted it on the fireplace and in my studio: "Be kind to everyone you meet, for everyone is fighting a great battle." We all are. Everyone.

Without information, there can be no real understanding of the ramifications of our choices.

I'm an American by birth, but I'm a Texan by the Grace of God.

Love makes you blind to your own survival. And if it doesn't then it's not love at all.