“Kids can be a pain in the neck when they’re not a lump in your throat.”

We can never untangle all the woes in other people’s lives. We can’t produce miracles overnight. But we can bring a cup of cool water to a thirsty soul, or a scoop of laughter to a lonely heart.

A lot of kneeling keeps one in good standing.

Teaching literature is teaching how to read. How to notice things in a text that a speed-reading culture is trained to disregard, overcome, edit out, or explain away; how to read what the language is doing, not guess what the author was thinking; how to take evidence from a page, not seek a reality to substitute for it.

My karma just ran over my dogma.

Old florists never die. They just make other arrangements.

Patience is the ability to idle your motor when you feel like stripping your gears.

Pain is inevitable. Misery is optional

I don’t have to figure out why or how or when. God has a plan, and I’m committed to it. That commitment frees me from having to worry about the details.

If we give someone a piece of bread and butter, that’s kindness, but if we put jelly or peanut butter on it, then it’s Loving Kindness.

The secret of growing younger is counting blessings, not birthdays.

Grudges are like hand grenades: it is wise to release them before they destroy you.

We can choose to gather to our hearts the thorns of disappointment, failure, loneliness, and dismay in our present situation. Or we can gather the flowers of God’s grace, boundless love, abiding presence, and unmatched joy. I choose to gather the flowers.

Forgiveness is a stunning principle, your ticket out of hate and fear and chaos.

Your face is a billboard advertising your philosophy of life!

No one likes change… but babies in diapers.

Life can be wonderful. Do your best not to miss it!” Enjoy what it is before it isn’t anymore. Dare to slip on a pair of bunny slippers once in a while! Surprise yourself! Enjoy the little things because one day you’ll look back and realize they were the big things!

I still learn, but I think it’s the best thing in life to have a kid.

It’s impossible to protect your kids against disappointment in life.

A kid can never have too many books!

I was an idiot when I was a kid.

The reason why kids are crazy is because nobody can face the responsibility of bringing them up.

I have no problem being a role model, I love it. I have kids looking up to me and hopefully I inspire these kids to do good things.

Every kid starts out as a natural-born scientist, and then we beat it out of them. A few trickle through the system with their wonder and enthusiasm for science intact.

I’m human, I’m not perfect. I make mistakes all the time, but I guess my job is to keep those mistakes to myself, which I’m already fine doing and just try to be the best I can be for those kids.