Good works may only be beautiful sins, if they are not done in a true spirit.

Temptations come, as a general rule, when they are sought.

To have a man who can flirt is next thing to indispensable to a leader of society.

One only says it is one's duty when one has something disagreeable to do.

The ideal is the flower-garden of the mind, and very apt to run to weeds unless carefully tended.

As for pictures and museums, that don't trouble me. The worst of going abroad is that you've always got to look at things of that sort. To have to do it at home would be beyond a joke.

It is so seldom in this world that things come just when they are wanted.

Laughing is not the first expression of joy. ... A person laughs in idleness, for fun, not for joy. Joy has nothing, nothing but the old way of tears.

Even in misery we love to be foremost, to have the bitter in our cup acknowledged as more bitter than that of others.

All perfection is melancholy.

there are some people who never learn; indeed, few people learn by experience, so far as I have ever seen.

I am thankful to God everyday for the Gift of Life because even if I were the richest in the world, I still wouldn't afford to buy Life.

To reflect God’s image is a lifestyle

You had better be ready to change your mind when needed.

It took me 10 years to write a story that pleased me - that I could look at after it was published and not cringe.

I screwed up. Again. You're shocked, I'm sure.

You have to always work against what you did before, and even against your taste.

Once you have a PhD, every meeting you go to becomes a doctor's appointment.

If you can reduce the power of reaction, you rise much higher.

I seek no better warrant than my own, conscience.

The heart of human excellence often begins to beat when you discover a pursuit that absorbs you, frees you, challenges you, or gives you a sense of meaning, joy, or passion.