What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other’s folly – that is the first law of nature.

A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.

Probably because I’m from a middle class family, I have that nature in me that I don’t get too excited with big things.

Many people think of perfectionism as striving to be your best, but it is not about self-improvement; it’s about earning approval and acceptance.

The more I see of deer, the more I admire them as mountaineers. They make their way into the heart of the roughest solitudes with smooth reserve of strength, through dense belts of brush and forest encumbered with fallen trees and boulder piles, across canons, roaring streams, and snow-fields, ever showing forth beauty and courage.

I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.

I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.

When you draw or paint a tree, you do not imitate the tree; you do not copy it exactly as it is, which would be mere photography. To be free to paint a tree or a flower or a sunset, you have to feel what it conveys to you: the significance, the meaning of it.

Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick.

I despise people who go to the gutter on either the right or the left and hurl rocks at those in the center.

Now I will say this to every sinner, though he should think himself to be the worst sinner who ever lived: cry to the Lord and seek Him while He may be found. A throne of grace is a place fitted for you. By simple faith, go to your Savior, for He is the throne of grace.

Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace.

All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full.

If people think nature is their friend, then they sure don’t need an enemy.

I know that a large part of my fan base is gay. They’ve shown me love from the start. I mean in this industry, everyone from my glam people to my dancers are gay. You can’t be homophobic in this line of work – I’m a pop star!

Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.

Man approaches the unattainable truth through a succession of errors.

To keep your secret is wisdom; but to expect others to keep it is folly.

Error is acceptable as long as we are young; but one must not drag it along into old age.

One day it will be over, and I don’t care.

One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be.

Don’t let the incidents which take place in life bring you low. And certainly don’t whine. You can be brought low, that’s OK, but don’t be reduced by them. Just say, ‚That’s life.‘

We’re all of us guinea pigs in the laboratory of God. Humanity is just a work in progress.

Courageous people do not fear forgiving, for the sake of peace.

I sang a song at my sister’s wedding. My mother forced me into that, too. But that one felt all right.

Whether a person is straight or gay, Republican, Democrat, good person, not a good person, they’re all welcome, because to me, church is a place you’re supposed to get healed and whole and loved.

Clinicians, academicians, and politicians are often put to a test of faith. In pursuit of their goals, will their religion show or will it be hidden? Are they tied back to God or to man?

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.

I have lived long enough to satisfy both nature and glory.

The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape.

Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction.

SEALs are human beings. We may all have the same haircuts, but we aren’t robots. Some SEALs are great people. Some are not great people. Some have done unspeakably terrible things. You’re dealing with different people, different dreams, different desires.

Evolution was far more thrilling to me than the biblical account. Who would not rather be a rising ape than a falling angel? To my juvenile eyes, Darwin was proved true every day. It doesn’t take much to make us flip back into monkeys again.

I am a Christian, and the Bible teaches me to forgive.

I briefly did therapy, but after a while, I realised it is just like a farmer complaining about the weather. You can’t fix the weather – you just have to get on with it.

There can be no better grounding for a lifetime as an author than to see humanity in all its various guises through the lens of the reporter for the town.

The answer I found is you stay away from the people who make fun of you, and you join these ad hoc groups who understand your craziness.

One who is injured ought not to return the injury, for on no account can it be right to do an injustice; and it is not right to return an injury, or to do evil to any man, however much we have suffered from him.

My parents taught me never to judge others based on whom they love, what color their skin is, or their religion.

The bluebird carries the sky on his back.

Commodities such as gold and silver have a world market that transcends national borders, politics, religions, and race. A person may not like someone else’s religion, but he’ll accept his gold.

The United States fully accepts the profound truth that our own progress, prosperity, and peace are interlocked with the progress, prosperity, and peace of all humanity.

Forgive me my nonsense, as I also forgive the nonsense of those that think they talk sense.

He who looks the higher is the more highly distinguished, and turning over the great book of nature (which is the proper object of philosophy) is the way to elevate one’s gaze.

Every particular in nature, a leaf, a drop, a crystal, a moment of time is related to the whole, and partakes of the perfection of the whole.

No violent extreme endures.

Habit is a second nature that destroys the first. But what is nature? Why is habit not natural? I am very much afraid that nature itself is only a first habit, just as habit is a second nature.

My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing.

I don’t try to control my days.

We cannot despair of humanity, since we ourselves are human beings.

Forgiveness is not a one-time thing that happened the day you received Christ. It is an everyday thing, for the rest of your life.

I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free.

When men come to like a sea-life, they are not fit to live on land.

Occurrences in this domain are beyond the reach of exact prediction because of the variety of factors in operation, not because of any lack of order in nature.

The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.

I suppose we need not go mourning the buffaloes. In the nature of things, they had to give place to better cattle, though the change might have been made without barbarous wickedness.

Despite all I have seen and experienced, I still get the same simple thrill out of glimpsing a tiny patch of snow in a high mountain gully and feel the same urge to climb towards it.

The wonderful news is that our Lord is a God of mercy, and He responds to repentance.

We are punished by our sins, not for them.

I have lived eighty years of life and know nothing for it, but to be resigned and tell myself that flies are born to be eaten by spiders and man to be devoured by sorrow.