Walking the stacks in a library, dragging your fingers across the spines — it’s hard not to feel the presence of sleeping spirits.

Sister, there are people who went to sleep all over the world last night, poor and rich and white and black, but they will never wake again. Sister, those who expected to rise did not, their beds became their cooling boards, and their blankets became their winding sheets. And those dead folks would give anything, anything at all for just five minutes of this… So you watch yourself about complaining, Sister. What you’re supposed to do when you don’t like a thing is change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it. Don’t complain.

When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

A lie doesn’t become truth, wrong doesn’t become right and evil doesn’t become good just because it’s accepted by a majority.

Now and then, in this workaday world, things do happen in the delightful storybook fashion, and what a comfort that is.

When you’re running from the darkness, it’s a feeling of fear,” he said. “But when you’re running towards the light, it’s hope. You know you’re running to strength and peace and happiness. We all need to be running to the light.

All my life I’ve looked at words as though I were seeing them for the first time.

The word religion literally means ‘to ligate again’ or ‘to tie back’ to God. The question we might ask ourselves is, are we securely tied to God so that our faith shows, or are we actually tied to something else?

There is no school equal to a decent home and no teacher to a virtuous parent.

The government is not your salvation. The government is not your road to prosperity. Hard work, education will take you far beyond what any government program can ever promise.

My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Instead of complaining on television or adapting ourselves to the spirit of the age, Christians ought to consider that if the world doesn’t hate us, we might be doing it wrong.

If there are certain principles, as I think there are, which the constitution of our nature leads us to believe, and which we are under a necessity to take for granted in the common concerns of life, without being able to give a reason for them — these are what we call the principles of common sense; and what is manifestly contrary to them, is what we call absurd.

Cynicism is not realistic and tough. It’s unrealistic and kind of cowardly because it means you don’t have to try.

She read books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live.

All my life I’ve looked at words as though I were seeing them for the first time.

How much larger your life would be if your self could become smaller in it… You would break out of this tiny and tawdry theatre in which your own little plot is always played, and you would find yourself under a freer sky, in a street full of splendid strangers.

Too many go about their lives thinking they are of little worth when, in reality, they are elegant and eternal creatures of infinite value with potential beyond imagination.

If you are willing to serenely bear the trial of being displeasing to yourself, then you will be for Jesus a pleasant place of shelter.

I had always hoped that this land might become a safe and agreeable asylum to the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong.

True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior. The study of the doctrines of the Gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior.

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.

[Young people] are high-minded because they have not yet been humbled by life, nor have they experienced the force of circumstances. … They think they know everything, and are always quite sure about it.

It is certainly desirable to be well descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors.

We have not the reverent feeling for the rainbow that the [savage] has, because we know how it is made. We have lost as much as we gained by prying into that matter.

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

‘Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me,’ declared Martin Luther boldly, though threatened and persecuted. Luther stood for the responsibility of the individual and the rights of the individual conscience, and this he did at the imminent risk of his life.

A person may profit by noticing the first intimation of the spirit of revelation; for instance, when you feel pure intelligence flowing into you, it may give you sudden strokes of ideas, … those things that were presented unto your minds by the Spirit of God, will come to pass; and thus by learning the Spirit of God and understanding it, you may grow into the principle of revelation, until you become perfect in Christ Jesus.

To sit at one’s table on a sunny morning, with four clear hours of uninterruptible security, plenty of nice white paper, and a Squeezer (fountain) pen — that is true happiness.

​But ​​​sanctify​ the Lord God in your hearts: and ​be​ ready always to ​give​ ​​​an answer​ to every man that asketh you a reason of the ​​​hope​ that is in you with ​​​meekness​ and ​​​fear

He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.

We can forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.

Scriptures are like packets of light that illuminate our minds and give place to guidance and inspiration from on high. They can become the key to open the channel to communion with our Father in Heaven and His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

To one with faith, no explanation is needed; to one without, no explanation is possible.

Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today. It’s already tomorrow in Australia.

In America it doesn’t matter where you came from, it matters where you are going.

Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it … The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias.

In both parties there are fools at one end and crackpots at the other, but the great body in the middle is sound and wise.

It’s hard. We judge ourselves by our good intentions, but we are judged by our last worst act.

The power is in the balance: we are our injuries, as much as we are our successes.

Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I’m not living.

After all these years, I see that I was mistaken about Eve in the beginning; it is better to live outside the Garden with her than inside it without her.

Time will explain.

The nature of God’s word is, that whosoever reads it will begin immediately to make him every day better and better, til he has grown into a perfect man.

[Observing the] Sabbath is therefore a declaration of our freedom. It means you are not a slave – not to your culture’s expectations, your family’s hopes, your medical school’s demands, not even to your own insecurities. To practice Sabbath is a disciplined and faithful way to remember that you are not the one who keeps the world running, who provides for your family, not even the one who keeps your work projects moving forward. How easy it is to fall prey to the temptation to believe that [we] alone are holding up our corner of creation.

Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth- in a word, to know himself- so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves.

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.

I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart’s affection and the truth of imagination.

Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

I like nonsense. It wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope, which is what I do, and that enbales you to laugh at life’s realities.

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.

The sweet spot of worrying about other people’s opinions is caring enough to learn from them, but not so much that you conform to them. It takes humility to rethink your views in the face of disapproval. It takes integrity to put your personal values above social approval.

When the Bible says “do not lean on your own understanding,” the Bible is being serious. Your heart is deceitful, your emotions fluctuate, your understanding does not see the overall, big picture. God never lies. God never changes. God knows all. Trust Him.

I have given up *newspapers in exchange for Tacitus and Thucydides, for Newton and Euclid; and I find myself much the happier. (*addition: same for Instagram, TikTok, etc.)

Those who have passed on are as deeply interested in our welfare today, if not with greater capacity, with far more interest behind the veil, than they were in the flesh… They see us, they are solicitous for our welfare, they love us now more than ever.

Happy is the man who finds a true friend, and far happier is he who finds that true friend in his wife.

Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.

The purpose of the cult was not to convince or persuade, but to sow confusion, destroy common sense, enforce obedience, isolate individuals and crush their dignity. People had to self-censor and in turn they monitored others, denouncing those who failed to appear sufficiently sincere in their professions of loyalty. No one knew who believed what.

Our ministering angels are our family and ancestors, and we can call them down. We can invite them into our lives to participate with us, to be our ministering angels, to be part of who we are and how we move in this world.

Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.

1: Whatever the work is, do it well—not for the boss but for yourself, 2: You make the job; it doesn’t make you, 3: Your real life is with us, your family, 4:You are not the work you do; you are the person you are. I have worked for all sorts of people since then, geniuses and morons, quick-witted and dull, bighearted and narrow. I’ve had many kinds of jobs, but since that conversation with my father I have never considered the level of labor to be the measure of myself, and I have never placed the security of a job above the value of home.

I retain the right to be incredibly moved by those little things that nobody notices.

We have no government armed with the power which is capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.

The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.

He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.

The life of a nation is secure only while that nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous.

How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause? Such a fine, sunny day, and I have to go, but what does my death matter, if through us thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?

Someone who hates one group will end up hating everyone — and, ultimately, hating himself or herself. No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them.

So let us begin anew—remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is subject to proof.

Heaven will be no heaven to me if I do not meet my wife there.

With gratitude, optimism becomes sustainable.

Letting people be wrong about you or a situation while keeping your peace and focus is the most misunderstood power move you will ever make.

Happiness in marriage and parenthood can exceed a thousand times any other happiness…