The soul is often hungrier than the body and no shop can sell it food.

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.

Some books mirror reality while others are entirely fantasy. My favorite are those that manage to weave both into a world.

When you're composing for somebody, that means you have a boss. You have to do what it takes to, at the end of the day, appease them.

He may travel who can subsist on the wild fruits and game of the most cultivated country.

A cry-wanking scene is the struggle to live, in a single moment.

Words can hurt you. In the larger world, it frames how people think about you, and it can hurt you in lots of little, subtle ways.

But it is the fear, not the writing that defeats me. Everything is not a masterpiece.

We all get 24 hours a day... It's up to us as to what we do with those 24 hours.

There are hundreds of good reasons for having a cat, but all you need is one.

Not that the incredulous person doesn't believe in anything. It's just that he doesn't believe in everything.

Poetry is the special medium of spiritual crazy wisdom, the form of expression that comes closest to creating a bridge between words and what is wordless.