Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.
If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes.
It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.
Whatever you do in life, surround yourself with smart people who’ll argue with you.
Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you capable of becoming.
Be true to yourself, help others, make each day your masterpiece, make friendships a fine art, drink deeply from good books—especially the Bible, build a shelter against a rainy day, give thanks for your blessings and pray for guidance every day.
Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts.
Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.
I worry that business leaders are more interested in material gain than they are in having the patience to build up a strong organization, and a strong organization starts with caring for their people.
The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones.
Not to engage in the pursuit of ideas is to live like ants instead of like men.
Unless we love and are loved, each of us is alone, each of us is deeply lonely.
The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as we continue to live.
In the case of good books, the point is not how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.
True freedom is impossible without a mind made free by discipline.
Freedom is the emancipation from the arbitrary rule of other men.
Ask others about themselves, at the same time, be on guard not to talk too much about yourself.
A lecture has been well described as the process whereby the notes of the teacher become the notes of the student without passing through the mind of either.
The telephone book is full of facts, but it doesn’t contain a single idea.
If you never ask yourself any questions about the meaning of a passage, you cannot expect the book to give you any insight you do not already possess.
Anyone who thinks sitting in church can make you a Christian must also think that sitting in a garage can make you a car.
Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known.
When the country goes temporarily to the dogs, cats must learn to be circumspect, walk on fences, sleep in trees, and have faith that all this woofing is not the last word.
Bravery and adventure! That’s the ticket! Don’t sit and gather moss. Get up, get out, do what you dream of doing, and if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work, and you don’t need to made that particular mistake again, but at least you won’t get old wondering what if you had.
Sometimes there is nothing you can do, and in those times, you must do something anyway.
Beauty isn’t worth thinking about; what’s important is your mind. You don’t want a fifty-dollar haircut on a fifty-cent head.
Life is continuous. Life never stops. We come to the really great questions and before we can answer them, life has moved on to something else.
Intelligence is like four-wheel drive. It only allows you to get stuck in more remote places.
I think if the church put in half the time on covetousness that it does on lust, this would be a better world for all of us.
When you wage war on the public schools, you’re attacking the mortar that holds the community together. You’re not a conservative, you’re a vandal.
We should take good care of the domestic animals we have brought into existence until they die. We should stop bringing more domestic animals into existence.
Welfare reforms and the whole “happy” exploitation movement are not “baby steps.” They are big steps–in a seriously backward direction.
Because animals are property, we consider as “humane treatment” that we would regard as torture if it were inflicted on humans.
You cannot live a nonviolent life as long as you are consuming violence. Please consider going vegan.
Who I’ve been is not as important as who I’m becoming.
Veganism is not a limitation in any way; it’s an expansion of your love, your commitment to nonviolence, and your belief in justice for all.
If we can live and prosper without killing, why would we not do so? I do not see veganism as ‘extreme’ in any way. I see killing for no reason as extreme in every way.
All sentient beings should have at least one right—the right not to be treated as property.
There is nothing more ‘elitist’ than thinking our palate pleasure can ever justify a second of suffering or a single death. Please go vegan.
If you love animals but think that veganism is extreme, then you are confused about the meaning of love.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes with which Christ looks out his compassion to the world. Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which he is to bless us now.
Let nothing Disturb you, Let nothing frighten you, Though all things pass, God does not change. Patience wins all things. But he lacks nothing who possesses God; For God alone suffices.
The surest way to determine whether one possesses the love of God is to see whether he or she loves his or her neighbor. These two loves are never separated. Rest assured, the more you progress in love of neighbor the more your love of God will increase.
Mental prayer in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know loves us. The important thing is not to think much but to love much and so do that which best stirs you to love. Love is not great delight but desire to please God in everything.
We always find that those who walked closest to Christ were those who had to bear the greatest trials.
Christ has no body now but mine. He prays in me, works in me, looks through my eyes, speaks through my words, works through my hands, walks with my feet and loves with my heart.
Desire to see God, be fearful of losing Him, and find joy in everything that can lead to Him. If you act in this way, you will always live in great peace.
Each of us has a soul, but we forget to value it. We don’t remember that we are creatures made in the image of God. We don’t understand the great secrets hidden inside of us.
About the injunction of the Apostle Paul that women should keep silent in church? Don’t go by one text only.
Out of suffering comes the serious mind; out of salvation, the grateful heart; out of endurance, fortitude; out of deliverance faith. Patient endurance attends to all things.
Everybody else is working to change, persuade, tempt and control them. The best readers come to fiction to be free of all that noise.
He had learned the worst lesson that life can teach – that it makes no sense.
You put too much stock in human intelligence, it doesn’t annihilate human nature.
Stop worrying about growing old. And think about growing up.
Because that is when you love somebody – when you see them being game in the face of the worst. Not courageous. Not heroic. Just game.
The pleasure isn’t in owning the person. The pleasure is this. Having another contender in the room with you.
Literature takes a habit of mind that has disappeared. It requires silence, some form of isolation, and sustained concentration in the presence of an enigmatic thing.
You tasted it. Isn’t that enough? Of what do you ever get more than a taste? That’s all we’re given in life, that’s all we’re given of life. A taste. There is no more.
Actually we did not have the feelings we said we had until we spoke them–at least I didn’t; to phrase them was to invent them and own them.
Maybe the best thing would be to forget being right or wrong about people and just go along for the ride. But if you can do that — well, lucky you.
The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.
In our age there is no such thing as keeping out of politics. All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia.
He who controls the present controls the past. He who controls the past control the future.
Not to expose your true feelings to an adult seems to be instinctive from the age of seven or eight onwards.
Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.
Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.
We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.
Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.
I do not wish to comment on the work; if it does not speak for itself, it is a failure.
A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves, and traitors are not victims but accomplices.
Successful people replace the words “wish”, “should” and “try” with “I will”.
No matter what the industry you choose to ultimately invest all your time and energy in, be sure you’re the owner, founder, and CEO. Remember, if you don’t own it, you can’t control it nor can you depend on it.
The greatest minds are like film, they take the negatives and develop themselves in darkness…
All I could feel was love leaking in my soul and my heart seeping bits of heaven.
Like the Bermuda triangle, she swallowed her victims whole.
Some books must be sipped slowly like a strong bourbon. Most books must be devoured more than once because as you age you distill more.
You will be perpetually unhappy if you continue to refuse to walk in your calling.
The sky is a tight gray sheet of Baroque prose pulled snug.
Never accept yourself as a finished product. Be a finished product when you die. As long as you have breath in your lungs, expand yourself.
We’ve developed algorithms for orgasms, broken it down to a science, I spell out equations on the small of your back, your kisses, the most beautiful calculus I’ve ever studied. You do fractions and long handed division up my thighs, balance equations between my legs… even my sharp clefts and C-notes can’t match our depths…
