If you're unwilling to defer pleasure or endure some "pain" for now, are you likely to end up later deep in the hole?

If you're experiencing no anxiety or discomfort, the risk you're taking probably isn't worthy of you. The only risks that aren't a little scary are the ones you've outgrown.

Most people confuse wishing and wanting with pursuing. You must place your trust in action.

Optimism inspires, energizes, and brings out our best. It points the mind toward possibilities and helps us think creatively past problems.

No sense being pessimistic. Wouldn't work anyway.

Too much attention on problems kills our faith in possibilities.

If you must doubt something, doubt your limits.

Your ethical muscle grows stronger every time you choose right over wrong.

Excellence calls for character . . . integrity . . . fairness . . . honesty . . . a determination to do what's right. High ethical standards, across the board.

So let your deepest desires direct your aim. Set your sights far above the 'reasonable' target. The power of purpose is profound only if you have a desire that stirs the heart.

We can't win the struggle for high standards if we just talk a good game . . . we've got to play a good game.

"I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always means an affaire de coeur."

We don't have a revolution, and we don't have the time for evolution, where does it come from? It must come from some kind of shared experience that everybody agrees with.

I never had a trial I wanted to have, but I never had trial I wasn't glad I had.

There are no laws by which we can write Iliads.

Nostalgia is something we think of as fuzzy. But it's pain. Pain concerning the past.

Sin is not a stain that I must wash out. What I need to do is ask forgiveness and reconcile myself, not go to the drycleaners. I have to go encounter Jesus who gave his life for me.

Music is the art... which most completely realizes the artistic idea and is the condition to which all the other arts are constantly aspiring.

When you look at our world, the truth is that we're all under the influence of politics.

Whoever stubbornly refuses to accept criticism will suddenly be broken beyond repair.

Every person who has ever lived has lived an unbroken succession of unique occasions.