Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.

Good fame is like fire; when you have kindled you may easily preserve it; but if you extinguish it, you will not easily kindle it again.

I believe in God – not in a Catholic God; there is no Catholic God. There is God, and I believe in Jesus Christ, his incarnation. Jesus is my teacher and my pastor, but God, the Father, Abba, is the light and the Creator. This is my Being.

A man who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary.

There is no uncreated being except God. God has no opposite.

Light troubles speak; the weighty are struck dumb.

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.

The great end of life is not knowledge but action.

A man watches his pear tree day after day, impatient for the ripening of the fruit. Let him attempt to force the process, and he may spoil both fruit and tree. But let him patiently wait, and the ripe pear at length falls into his lap.

A loving heart is the truest wisdom.

The chief contribution of Protestantism to human thought is its massive proof that God is a bore.

If you want to gather honey, don’t kick over the beehive.

If you believe in prayer at all, expect God to hear you. If you do not expect, you will not have. God will not hear you unless you believe He will hear you; but if you believe He will, He will be as good as your faith.

I’m an atheist, and the concept of god for me is all part of what I call ‚the last illusion.‘ The last illusion is someone knows what is going on. Nearly everyone has that illusion somewhere, and it manifests not only in the terms of the idea that there is a god but that it knows what’s going on but that the planets know what’s going on.

Ultimately, education in its real sense is the pursuit of truth. It is an endless journey through knowledge and enlightenment.

If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men’s cottage princes‘ palaces.

Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion.

But although all our knowledge begins with experience, it does not follow that it arises from experience.

What really matters is how God sees me. He isn’t concerned with labels; he is concerned about the state of man’s soul.

Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each one of us; and true progress is to know more, and be more, and to do more.

Never give a sword to a man who can’t dance.

Take care to sell your horse before he dies. The art of life is passing losses on.

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.

I don’t claim to be knowledgeable about theology. Most of my knowledge comes out of my experience and the lessons in the Bible. Every Sunday I’m home I teach 45 minutes and we boiled them down to one page for the new book, ‚Through the Year with Jimmy Carter.‘

Live to learn, and you will really learn to live.

If there is no God, everything is permitted.

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

There are some Christian people who taste and see and enjoy religion in their own souls, and who get at a deeper knowledge of it than books can ever give them, though they should search all their days.

I never give advice unless someone asks me for it. One thing I’ve learned, and possibly the only advice I have to give, is to not be that person giving out unsolicited advice based on your own personal experience.

If I get stuck, I look at a book that tells me how someone else did it. I turn the pages, and then I say, ‚Oh, I forgot that bit,‘ then close the book and carry on. Finally, after you’ve figured out how to do it, you read how they did it and find out how dumb your solution is and how much more clever and efficient theirs is!

The career of a sage is of two kinds: He is either honored by all in the world, Like a flower waving its head, Or else he disappears into the silent forest.

The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depends upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and of wisdom.

God wants us to prosper financially, to have plenty of money, to fulfill the destiny He has laid out for us.

The god whom science recognizes must be a God of universal laws exclusively, a God who does a wholesale, not a retail business. He cannot accommodate his processes to the convenience of individuals.

Before we understand science, it is natural to believe that God created the universe.

Silence is the mother of truth.

Heaven means to be one with God.

Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.

It is the heart always that sees, before the head can see.

If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.

Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory.

Impart as much as you can of your spiritual being to those who are on the road with you, and accept as something precious what comes back to you from them.

Knowledge about life is one thing; effective occupation of a place in life, with its dynamic currents passing through your being, is another.

He who despairs of the human condition is a coward, but he who has hope for it is a fool.

If you can’t read, the only thing you can do is enjoy the pictures, not the whole story. Reading is the key to knowledge. Knowledge is the key to understanding. So read on, young man! Read on, young lady!

In heaven an angel is nobody in particular.

Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

The ideas I stand for are not mine. I borrowed them from Socrates. I swiped them from Chesterfield. I stole them from Jesus. And I put them in a book. If you don’t like their rules, whose would you use?

The age of a woman doesn’t mean a thing. The best tunes are played on the oldest fiddles.

A physician without a knowledge of Astrology has no right to call himself a physician.

God has already done everything He’s going to do. The ball is now in your court. If you want success, if you want wisdom, if you want to be prosperous and healthy, you’re going to have to do more than meditate and believe; you must boldly declare words of faith and victory over yourself and your family.

All that mankind has done, thought or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books.

My mother used to tell me man gives the award, God gives the reward. I don’t need another plaque.

I just think that trusting God means we’re going to have unanswered questions, and God is so much bigger than us, we’re never going to understand them all.

God’s mercy and grace give me hope – for myself, and for our world.

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.

Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof.

When a man fell into his anecdotage it was a sign for him to retire from the world.

We teach that God’s love for His children is infinite.