Reason can tell how love affects us, but cannot tell what love is.

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.

We live in a world where terrorism has a more familiar meaning than peace.

This is not a white and black business we are in. There are messy shades of crimson haunting us in everything we do.

All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women.

People are either good or they're not. Religion doesn't make anybody good, I don't think.

Leonardo's Mona Lisa is just a thousand thousand smears of paint. Michelangelo's David is just a million hits with a hammer. We're all of us a million bits put together the right way.

The one Bach piece I learnt made me feel I was being repeatedly hit on the head with a teaspoon.

Why are the heavens not filled with light? Why is the universe plunged into darkness?

We think in language. The quality of our thoughts and ideas can only be as good as the quality of our language.

If I were an Arab-American, I would insist on being profiled. This is not the time for civil rights. There are larger issues for Americans.

Whatever the reasons, when forgiveness happens it is always a miracle of grace. The obstacles in its way are immense