There is no such thing as white lies a lie is as black as a coalpit and twice as foul.

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.

You are good enough to make whatever you want to achieve possible. You just need to find your talent and passion, then put a heck a lot of work into it.

Feminism has had exactly the same problem that "political correctness" has had: people keep using the phrase without really knowing what it means.

I love sad songs. They say so much. I love country music but even the happy songs sound really sad.

History is neither more nor less than biography on a large scale.

... for I know I shall be interrupted-- I shall want to be, really, because life is too exciting to sit still for long.

I recommend computer science to people who practice meditation. The mental structures that are used in computer science are very similar exercises done in Buddhist monasteries.

I don't know where my career is going to lead me. I would like my career to be as diverse as possible. I've done theater and I've done music, and I would love to keep that in my life.

Whatever the evolutionary basis of religion, the xenophobia it now generates is clearly maladaptive.

Success is the person who year after year reaches the highest limits in his field.

The first thing a hurdler learns is how to fall.