"The most mesmerizing of artists is always like one who was merely drawing in the sand and people came to watch."

"I once began to ask around what constitutes a good poem. It felt petty, in a sense. A boy would need no help in deciding which girls he thinks are pretty."

"A lack of common sense usually ends in some heroic feat, much like the soldier who dives onto the grenade so that others may live."

"Nothing frustrates people more than a cocky guy who's still winning."

"It is ignorance that is at times incomprehensible to the wise; for instance, he may not see 'the positive person' or 'the negative person' in such a black and white way as many people do. A wise man may not understand it because, as a catalyst of wisdom, but not always wise in his own eyes, even he can learn from and give back to fools. To think that an individual has absolutely nothing to offer to the table is counter-intuitively what the wise man considers to be 'the ignorance of hopelessness'."

"Frequent risk-takers have had their fair shares of failures and successes, hence, being confident in reaching their goals, they will usually seem insensitive to whether or not they look foolish or cool to other people."

"The hype cheapens the hyped, as right things are then made wrong by exaggeration."

"They have a special confidence in Christ, plus thoughtfulness plus faithfulness plus humility: for there are no things, in all creation, more beautiful, more rare than the so very disciplined and free, joyful and principled daughters of God."

"A distaste for the new is not always fear of the unknown, but sometimes ambition. Some people don't like the new way simply because they never got a chance to master the old way."

"The thing about stereotyping is it's usually just throwing rocks into a crowd hoping to hit somebody who deserves it."

"It is easier for one to take risks and to chase his dreams with a mindset that he has nothing to lose. In this lies the immense passion, the great advantage of avoiding a materialistic, pleasure-filled way of life."

"There's no need to curse God if you're an ugly duckling. He chooses those strong enough to endure it so that they can guide others who've felt the same."

"Songwriting and poetry are so commonly birthed from underdogs because one can make even the ugliest situations admirable, or more beautiful than the beautiful situations - they are the most graceful media in which the lines of society are distorted."

"One may suffer the long-term in order to grow in appreciation for the small things. For in short-term suffering, one only notices the large."

"An assumption is the joke, truth the punchline."

"The biggest challenge after success is shutting up about it."

"Oftentimes in reality, the genius is in the position of the antihero. Neither the good guys nor the bad guys really trust him because his truth is universal."

"Wherever there is abuse there is also corruption. Politics, philosophy, theology, science, industry, any field with the potential to affect the well-being of others can be destroyed by abuse and saved by good will."

"If we all knew who God really was and what he really wanted for each and every one of us, we would all know that only a fool could really deny him."

"The young are often savvy in the cultural world but not so much the intellectual, the old the intellectual but not so much the cultural. But I tell you those who do the most damage during an era are very much aware of both."

"The most important part of discernment is pinpointing the forces to be reckoned with, both the constructive and destructive."

"A god who gave us everything we wanted would be the most malevolent god of all. With an infantile curiosity, we insist on tasting the cockroach on the floor while our father is preparing a magnificent feast for us."

"A fear of weakness only strengthens weakness."

"The only truths worth arguing about are those truths that could prevent or lead to circumstances that may bite us in the rear sooner or later."

"The older you get, the more you understand how your conscience works. The biggest and only critic lives in your perception of people's perception of you rather than people's perception of you."

"You can perhaps, in a number of circumstances, tell yourself that you can't have more than you have until you do better than you're doing, but by all means steer clear of its reverse, the creed of defeat, in saying that you can't do better than you're doing until you can have more than you have."

"Christ died not so that you could freely go on sinning, and therefore, continue dying; He died rather so that you could freely grow in obedience, and therefore, start living."

"Divinity for the sake of the simple-minded is beautiful. Those theological assertions you write, say, or live by that you later feel foolish about, it means God still lives in you enough to tell you that they were indeed foolish. By mistakes you know you are alive."

"After each of his books, the writer, for a while, feels once again that he can now die happy."

"When you find that a theology has nothing more to offer than what the world already offers, then that theology as a theology is impractical, and therefore, useless."

"The weather is nature's disruptor of human plans and busybodies. Of all the things on earth, nature's disruption is what we know we can depend on, as it is essentially uncontrolled by men."

"God writes love and speaks poetry."

"There are those who feel that the world is ultimately moving closer to Truth and to prosperity as the times evolve; then there are those who feel that it is ultimately moving farther away from Truth and into self-destruction. From this, and if it were really that simplistic, one might get the impression that life gravitates slightly into two types of people whom which are diametrically opposed in spirit."

"A fruitless year, take a fearless heartOne that blooms late will flourish in the dark."

"Pride and power fall when the person falls, but discoveries of truth form legacies that can be built upon for generations."

"It helps to not confuse theological philosophers with evangelists. There is a difference but objectively neither better than the other: an evangelist's mission is to convert, a theological philosopher's mission is to build an understanding of a position."

"It can be a good thing if deeper theology, or philosophy, only makes one more uncertain. It may lead to a healthy doubt; he may throw his hands up saying, 'God, I just don't know anymore. If you're out there, I'm giving it all to you.' From there, after the surrender, he is allowing God himself, rather than theories, books, and documents, to take over and lead him into all truth."

"To be truly positive in the eyes of some, you have to risk appearing negative in the eyes of others."

"Tolerance is not infinite patience, but slain patience; patience that has lost its hope and love and has thrown in the towel."

"Wise men are not pacifists, they are merely less likely to jump up and retaliate against their antagonizers. They know that needless antagonizers are virtually already insecure enough."

"Where neither go wrong, the naive only see the world as a victim of bad doctrine; the cynic only sees good doctrine as a victim of the world."

"When focusing only on one's credentials one boasts his own incompetence in his capacity for discernment of the individual."

"To me, many of what seemed to be Bible contradictions only pointed to the grace of Christ. It is not so much a rule book on how to be holy as it is a prophecy of the One who can make you holy. In this, I see God as the least bigoted of all in existence: While men always, in their hearts, delight in vengeance for being wronged, God is the only Being who wants to free you from the penalty of His own laws."

"The theistic philosopher has a tendency to devalue insufficient worldviews, ideologies, and quite often common sense for the greater good, and in such cases, one should not be discouraged when seen as a bad guy. If he stresses over man's perception of a righteous heart, then he has given his heart to man."

"Intelligent people, as some say, in their openness, are indeed slow to criticize, but conversely, in their openness to the concerns of others, the genuine are slow to fret about being criticized."

"I'm a lion in a strange land."

"Christians walk as strangers in the world: They are untamed. They are free. To persevere with love, yet untamed by man, is often what leaves that open space for divine revelation when God so wills."

"The way of the consumerist culture is to spend so much energy chasing happiness that it has none left to be happy."

"Dreams and freedom are the same. In order for them to be, they come with a price."

"Misguided good men are more dangerous than honest bad men. It is because they are seen as good that, in and by good conscience, the mob will always, stubbornly back them without question."