Tidiness makes me think of held breath, of suspended animation.

Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.

I do not at all understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.

Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns.

Dogs are the closest we come to knowing the divine love of God on this side of eternity.

... the reason life works at all is that not everyone in your tribe is nuts on the same day. [pp. 65-66]

Sometimes I think that Jesus watches my neurotic struggles, and shakes his head and grips his forehead and starts tossing back mojitos.

Nothing heals us like letting people know our scariest parts: When people listen to you cry and lament, and look at you with love, it's like they are holding the baby of you.

Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.

I thought the secret of life was obvious: be here now, love as if your whole life depended on it, find your life's work, and try to get hold of a giant panda.

Human lives are hard, even those of health and privilege, and don't make much sense. This is the message of the Book of Job: Any snappy explanation of suffering you come up with will be horseshit.

You will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself...the height of a man's success is gauged by his self-mastery

Sometimes I wish I could drive a car, but I'm gonna drive a car one day, so I don't worry about that.

The lips know only shallow tunes

The Federal Government was never, in its essence, anything but an anti-slavery government.

He's too much for Schuyler. They're wrong for each other. Anyone can see that. And when he leaves her, I'll be there. However long it takes, I'll still be there for her. Waiting.

If the winds of fortune are temporarily blowing against you, remember that you can harness them and make them carry you toward your definite purpose, through the use of your imagination.

Nature is a wet place where large numbers of ducks fly overhead uncooked.

When you're young, you're stupid. You do silly things.

I wondered if it was really because he cared about me, or if now I was just another challenge.

I love working out. Dance classes are my favorite.