“Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.”

Life is a series of surprises and would not be worth taking or keeping if it were not.

Be not the slave of your own past – plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so you shall come back with new self-respect, with new power, and with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.

For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.

Be silly. Be honest. Be kind.

All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.

When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.

Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.

For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.

Nature and Books belong to the eyes that see them.

When friendships are real, they are not glass threads or frost work, but the solidest things we can know.

It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

Many eyes go through the meadow, but few see the flowers in it.

A great man is always willing to be little.

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.

Be yourself; no base imitator of another, but your best self.

General rebellions and revolts of a whole people never were encouraged now or at any time. They are always provoked.

I think people should feel encouraged to be themselves.

Abilities wither under criticism; they blossom under encouragement.

Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.

Simply by our proximity to Jesus, we can bring hope and life to people and places trapped in discouragement and despair.

I was doing sketches that were funny but socially irresponsible. I felt I was deliberately being encouraged and I was overwhelmed.

Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.

Even through such simple acts as telling the truth, being kind, and encouraging others, we bring a smile to God’s face.