I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.

The high destiny of the individual is to serve rather than to rule.

To Marines, love of liberty is not an empty phrase… Rather, it’s displayed by blood, sweat, and tears for the fallen.

The gods‘ service is tolerable, man’s intolerable.

Prayer is a strong wall and fortress of the church; it is a goodly Christian weapon.

Sweet is the memory of past troubles.

You should not believe your conscience and your feelings more than the word which the Lord who receives sinners preaches to you.

I dream of a church that is a mother and shepherdess.

I have wondered about time all my life.

If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe, does science do us a disservice in deflating our conceits?

As the eagle was killed by the arrow winged with his own feather, so the hand of the world is wounded by its own skill.

In every parting there is an image of death.

Without stirring abroad, One can know the whole world; Without looking out of the window One can see the way of heaven. The further one goes The less one knows.

I have learned to know God. I have recast my social belief… All my admirers are married; most of my friends are dead; and I stand with all the world before me, where to choose a path to make in it.

In the Church, and in the journey of faith, women have had and still have a special role in opening doors to the Lord.

The number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the state.

I wish I had known when I was in the White House what I know now about the Third World.

The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see.

When I am angry I can pray well and preach well.

Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself to it.

The sergeant is the Army.

Silence is golden when you can’t think of a good answer.

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.

Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‚What are you doing for others?‘

I vividly remember a conversation I had many years ago in 1974, which marked a turning point in my leadership journey. I was sitting at a Holiday Inn with my friend, Kurt Campmeyer, when he asked me if I had a personal growth plan. I didn’t. In fact, I didn’t even know you were supposed to have one.

To be able to look back upon ones life in satisfaction, is to live twice.

An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.

Remember that children, marriages, and flower gardens reflect the kind of care they get.

I was at a New Year’s Eve party, and someone asked me how was my year, and I said, ‚I honestly think 2011 was the best year of my entire life,‘ and I actually meant it.

A mother defends herself with a heart filled with love before doing so with words. I wonder whether there is any love for the church in the hearts of those who pay so much attention to the scandals.

Talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud.

Despair is the conclusion of fools.

If you don’t know your full-throttle history, the whole story of how you came to where you are, it’s kind of hard to put things together.

It is sadder to find the past again and find it inadequate to the present than it is to have it elude you and remain forever a harmonious conception of memory.

Our necessities never equal our wants.

Great indebtedness does not make men grateful, but vengeful; and if a little charity is not forgotten, it turns into a gnawing worm.

When I think over what I have said, I envy dumb people.

I could fall in love with a sumo wrestler if he told stories and made me laugh. Obviously, it would be easier if someone was African-American and lived next door and went to the same church. Because then I wouldn’t have to translate.

For my part, I consider that it will be found much better by all parties to leave the past to history, especially as I propose to write that history myself.

The things hardest to bear are sweetest to remember.

The first forty years of life give us the text; the next thirty supply the commentary on it.

Anger is like those ruins which smash themselves on what they fall.

A company is a group organized to create a product or service, and it is only as good as its people and how excited they are about creating. I do want to recognize a ton of super-talented people. I just happen to be the face of the companies.

Spiritual worldliness kills! It kills the soul! It kills the Church!

Changing your mind is probably one of the most beautiful things people can do. And I’ve changed my mind about a lot of things over the years.

Life is a dead-end street.

Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.

Some people seem to fade away but then when they are truly gone, it’s like they didn’t fade away at all.

I think that all things, in their way, reflect heavenly truth, the imagination not least.

We occasionally stumble over the truth but most of us pick ourselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.

Oh, these vast, calm, measureless mountain days, days in whose light everything seems equally divine, opening a thousand windows to show us God.

Too often we… enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

Every man, every woman who has to take up the service of government, must ask themselves two questions: ‚Do I love my people in order to serve them better? Am I humble and do I listen to everybody, to diverse opinions in order to choose the best path?‘ If you don’t ask those questions, your governance will not be good.

How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds makes ill deeds done!

Twice and thrice over, as they say, good is it to repeat and review what is good.

In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

I doubt that the Lord cares much which honorable vocation you choose. But He does care if you love one another and serve one another.

I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.

What a waste it is to lose one’s mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is.

The Hindu religions gave me the impression of a vast well into which one plunges in order to grasp the reflection of the sun.

Some people wonder all their lives if they’ve made a difference. The Marines don’t have that problem.