I think sometimes the critics want me to beat people down, and that’s not in me. I want to lift people up.

I always knew that St. Jude was an amazing organization but meeting the kids and seeing how the hospital works first hand was truly beautiful. It doesn’t feel like a regular hospital all dreary and sad. It’s a colorful, beautiful, comfortable, fun place to live and the energy is wonderful.

You might not always get what you want, but you always get what you expect.

It is written on the arched sky; it looks out from every star. It is the poetry of Nature; it is that which uplifts the spirit within us.

My dear sisters, whatever your calling, whatever your circumstances, we need your impressions, your insights, and your inspiration. We need you to speak up and speak out in ward and stake councils.

Everyone needs a coach. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a basketball player, a tennis player, a gymnast or a bridge player.

The secret to happiness is to face the fact that the world is horrible.

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

Choosing to be positive and having a grateful attitude is going to determine how you’re going to live your life.

One friend in a lifetime is much, two are many, three are hardly possible. Friendship needs a certain parallelism of life, a community of thought, a rivalry of aim.

Whatever you are, be a good one.

I think everybody deserves an equal amount of appreciation whether how old they are, but I mean, I’m cool with the praise. I’m good.

‚Royal Beatings‘ was my first story, and it was published in 1977. But I sent all my early stories to ‚The New Yorker‘ in the 1950s, and then I stopped sending for a long time and sent only to magazines in Canada. ‚The New Yorker‘ sent me nice notes, though – penciled, informal messages. They never signed them. They weren’t terribly encouraging.

Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy and serenity.

Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: ‚I’m with you kid. Let’s go.‘

I believe if you keep your faith, you keep your trust, you keep the right attitude, if you’re grateful, you’ll see God open up new doors.

Remember happiness doesn’t depend upon who you are or what you have; it depends solely on what you think.

Behind every successful man is a woman, behind her is his wife.

Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness is it to be expecting evil before it comes.

I actually feel like women in my position, when we have all at our disposal to help us, shouldn’t complain when we consider all of the people who are really struggling and don’t have the means or support. Many people are single, raising children. That’s hard.

Never deprive someone of hope; it might be all they have.

To those of you who received honours, awards and distinctions, I say well done. And to the C students, I say you, too, can be president of the United States.

That our government should have been maintained in its original form from its establishment until now is not much to be wondered at. It had many props to support it through that period, which now are decayed and crumbled away. Through that period, it was felt by all to be an undecided experiment; now, it is understood to be a successful one.

How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.

Be a force of love as often as you can and turn away negative thoughts whenever you feel them surface.

We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the postive affirmation of peace.

It’s hard knowing who to trust with your personal life. When you cry in your room at night, you don’t always know who to call. So I am very close to my family.

It’s true my father abused me and didn’t love and protect me the way he should have, and at times it seemed no one would ever help me and it would never end. But God always had a plan for my life, and He has redeemed me.

A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

With all the… success that I’ve been lucky enough to get? That doesn’t happen unless the home life is solid.

Never, and I mean never, allow anyone else’s ideas of who you can or can’t become sully your dream or pollute your imagination. This is your territory, and a ‚Keep Out‘ sign is a great thing to erect at all entrances to your imagination.

Excellence encourages one about life generally; it shows the spiritual wealth of the world.

We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us thru that darkness to a safe and sane future.

Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

I’ve got incredible support from my wife and family and people around me. I’ve got great people around me who handle anything on the outside, business-wise, who help free me up to create in my job.

All things considered, there’s nobody better for children than parents.

You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind.

Discontent, blaming, complaining, self-pity cannot serve as a foundation for a good future, no matter how much effort you make.

I admire Ralph Nader and Denis Kucinich very much, and insofar as they bring up issues and carry out an educational and organisational function – that’s important, and fine, and I support it.

This is not a bad life.

Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.

People in tough times – it doesn’t mean they don’t have a great attitude.

If you’re doing your best, you won’t have any time to worry about failure.

The truth is, somebody is always talking about you, so you have to let it go… if it’s not a part of your God-given destiny.

Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.

Whenever things go a bit sour in a job I’m doing, I always tell myself, ‚You can do better than this.‘

What’s right about America is that although we have a mess of problems, we have great capacity – intellect and resources – to do some thing about them.

The sun doesn’t always shine in West Virginia, but the people do.

I don’t carry the burden of the past or the madness of the future. I live in the present.

All I can tell them is pick a good one and sock it. I get back to the dugout and they ask me what it was I hit and I tell them I don’t know except it looked good.

An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while a pessimist sees only the red stoplight… the truly wise person is colorblind.

I was raised by a mother who told me I was great every day of my life.

I’m telling you there is hope. I have seen it, but it does not come from the governments or corporations. It comes from the people.

Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.

My mom and I have always been there for each other. We had some tough times, but she was always there for me.

I’ve read the last page of the Bible. It’s all going to turn out all right.

Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.

The best marriages are the ones where we can go out in the world and really put ourselves out there. A lot of times we’ll fail, and sometimes we’ll pull it off. But good marriages are when you can go home and know that your vulnerability will be honored as courage, and that you’ll find support.

Until you have cultivated the habit of saying some kind word of those whom you do not admire, you will be neither successful nor happy.

Rose Adams is a wonderful Christian woman who cared for my mother, Morrow Coffey Graham, in her last years of life.