It is easy enough to be pleasant
When life flows by like a song,
But the man worth while
Is the one who will smile
When everything goes dead wrong.
For the test of the heart is trouble,
And it always comes with the years,
And the smile that is worth
The praises of earth
Is the smile that shines through the tears.
—Irish Saying

Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step. —Martin Luther King, Jr.

Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement; then it becomes a mistress, and then it becomes a master, and then a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster, and fling him out to the public. —Winston Churchill

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius--and a lot of courage--to move in the opposite direction. —E. F. Schumacker

I waited patiently for the LORD; He turned to me and heard my cry. —King David of Israel (Psalm 40:1)

I don't believe in Christian art or music...I believe in great art. If you are an artist, your job is to do great art and you don't need to tack on the word Christian. It's already great. —Rob Bell

The purpose of education is to keep a culture from being drowned in senseless repetitions, each of which claims to offer a new insight. —Harold Rosenberg

Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just. —Blaise Pascal

Courage is not the absence of despair; it is, rather, the capacity to move ahead in spite of despair. —Rollo May

God will not suffer man to have a knowledge of things to come; for if he had prescience of his prosperity, he would be careless; and if understanding of his adversity, he would be despairing and senseless. —Saint Augustine

The most evident token and apparent sign of true wisdom is a constant and unconstrained rejoicing. —Michel de Montaigne

This is as true in everyday life as it is in battle: we are given one life and the decision is ours whether to wait for circumstances to make up our mind, or whether to act, and in acting, to live. —Omar Bradley

It is human nature to think wisely and act in an absurd fashion. —Anatole France

Apprehension, uncertainty, waiting, expectation, fear of surprise, do a patient more harm than any exertion. —Florence Nightingale

Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature. —Saint Augustine

The right time is ANY time that one is still so lucky as to have. —Henry James

If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month. —Teddy Roosevelt

I could not, at any age, be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on. Life was meant to be lived. Curiousity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life. —Eleanor Roosevelt

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself (for God did not need to create). It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival. —C.S. Lewis

To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there. —Kofi Annan

You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. —Jack London

Most of life is routine - dull and grubby, but routine is the momentum that keeps a man going. If you wait for inspiration you'll be standing on the corner after the parade is a mile down the street. —Ben Nicholas

A man desires praise that he may be reassured, that he may be quit of his doubting of himself; he is indifferent to applause when he is confident of success. —Alec Waugh

No greater nor more affectionate honor can be conferred on an American than to have a public school named after him. —Herbert Hoover

There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are messengers of overwhelming grief...and unspeakable love. —Washington Irving

Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragement, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak. —Thomas Carlyle

A man who is eating or lying with his wife or preparing to go to sleep in humility, thankfulness and temperance, is, by Christian standards, in an infinitely higher state than one who is listening to Bach or reading Plato in a state of pride. —C.S. Lewis