I was in my late thirties when my eyes were opened to truth in God’s Word that showed me I wasn’t living the abundant life Jesus died for me to have. I had a very negative mindset and was miserable most of the time because of the abuse I had experienced throughout my childhood.

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.

I believe that the greatest form of prayer is praise to God.

Happiness doesn’t come from being rich, nor merely from being successful in your career, nor by self-indulgence. One step towards happiness is to make yourself healthy and strong while you are a boy so that you can be useful and so you can enjoy life when you are a man.

I used to feel unsafe right in the moment of an accomplishment – I felt the ground fall from under my feet because this could be the end. And even now, while everyone is celebrating, I’m on to the next thing. I don’t want to get lost in this big cushion of success.

Sometimes, if you begin to sing in a halfhearted mood, you can sing yourself up the ladder. Singing will often make the heart rise.

If the structures of the human mind remain unchanged, we will always end up re-creating the same world, the same evils, the same dysfunction.

Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.

Fame is ultimately about the cycles of desire and how to do away with them or manage them well.

I’ve realized that being happy is a choice. You never want to rub anybody the wrong way or not be fun to be around, but you have to be happy. When I get logical and I don’t trust my instincts – Thats when I get in trouble.

I have no time to think about other writers. I am too busy with my own problems.

I’ve been called a moron since I was about four. My father called me a moron. My grandfather said I was a moron. And a lot of times when I’m driving, I hear I’m a moron. I like being a moron.

I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all.

Faith crosses every border and touches every heart in every nation.

Good men by nature, wish to know. I know that many will call this useless work… men who desire nothing but material riches and are absolutely devoid of that of wisdom, which is the food and only true riches of the mind.

My favorite thing in life is writing about life, specifically the parts of life concerning love. Because, as far as I’m concerned, love is absolutely everything.

Take a course in good water and air; and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own. Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you.

Sometimes if you want to see a change for the better, you have to take things into your own hands.

When I was married, I definitely went through a lying period.

There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, ‚Thy will be done,‘ and those to whom God says, ‚All right, then, have it your way.‘

A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.

If I am no longer disturbed myself, I will deal less with disturbed people, but I don’t regret having concerned myself with them because I think most of us are disturbed.

Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.

The way to develop decisiveness is to start right where you are, with the very next question you face.

I believe in the Golden Rule – The Man with the Gold… Rules.

He who praises everybody, praises nobody.

Those of us who submitted or surrendered our ideas and dreams and identities to the ‚leaders‘ must take back our rights, our identities, our responsibilities.

The formation of one’s character ought to be everyone’s chief aim.

I’d like to think you don’t stop being creative once you get happy.

Optimism means better than reality; pessimism means worse than reality. I’m a realist.

One of the signs of passing youth is the birth of a sense of fellowship with other human beings as we take our place among them.

Me, as a person, I grow. I’m like a chameleon. You know? That is a gift and a curse for me. But more so a gift, because it never puts me in a box.

The other day the President said, I know you’ve had some rough times, and I want to do something that will show the nation what faith that I have in you, in your maturity and sense of responsibility. He paused, then said, would you like a puppy?

It is better to be the hammer than the anvil.

I’m the kind of person who needs to feel like everything happens for a reason. When you date a guy and it goes badly, that’s horrible. But if you can write a song about it, then it was worth it.

If you begin to understand what you are without trying to change it, then what you are undergoes a transformation.

Don’t be humble… you’re not that great.

I really started writing music to challenge myself, to see what I could write.

It is far better to be alone, than to be in bad company.

I can’t keep somebody from being a star, and I can’t make somebody a star, and nobody can.

Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom.

The fearful unbelief is unbelief in yourself.

The strongest influences in my life and my work are always whomever I love. Whomever I love and am with most of the time, or whomever I remember most vividly. I think that’s true of everyone, don’t you?

If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.

I don’t want to hear the word ‚can’t.‘

Not being beautiful was the true blessing. Not being beautiful forced me to develop my inner resources. The pretty girl has a handicap to overcome.

I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.

I’m going to Heaven just like the thief on the cross who said in that last moment: ‚Lord, remember me.‘

I separated from the Southern Baptists when they adopted the discriminatory attitude towards women, because I believe what Paul taught in Galatians that there is no distinction in God’s eyes between men and women, slaves and masters, Jews and non-Jews – everybody is created equally in the eyes of God.

Military school was great and especially great for leadership and then I spent two years in Vietnam.

I serve God.

We clearly see in God’s Word that anything He tells us to do, He will give us the ability to do it. But do we really believe it? Do we want to believe it? It’s easier to come up with excuses for why we can’t do things that are hard or that we really don’t want to do.

I’ve been studying the Bible for a long time. I remember that after the first five years or so of diligently studying the Word, I didn’t feel like I had made any progress. There were a lot of things in my life that were out of order, and I didn’t feel like I was getting anywhere.

It is impossible to reason without arriving at a Supreme Being.

I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn’t, than live as if there isn’t and to die to find out that there is.

Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning.

There are phases in life which surface at times, and it makes you understand that despite you working hard, everything what you are doing is probably not enough. That’s when you need to look around, and beyond.

Right discipline consists, not in external compulsion, but in the habits of mind which lead spontaneously to desirable rather than undesirable activities.

We will always tend to fulfill our own expectation of ourselves.

Never find fault with the absent.

Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.