"Imagine if we were all magical leprechauns, and every wish ever made on a four-leaf clover obliged us to help others obtain their wishes. Now imagine if people simply lived like this were true."

"I felt sad.I felt cold.I felt hurt.I felt forsaken and lonely.I felt doubtful and hesitant.I felt scared and deeply worried. I felt different, unknown, and unwelcome.I felt empty and woefully neglected.I felt weak and intimidated.I felt withdrawn and shy.I felt utterly hopeless.Then you held my hand, and I felt better."

"Your life is a personal lesson. For everyone else it is a loud example."

"There are trials in life that feel as tremendous as a quest to slay dragons. These trials are daunting. They require hard work, determination, and courage. But when the dragon is finally slain, the relief is immense."

"Comparisons are like rigid fingers-eager to point at a subject but unwilling to grasp it."

"Friends are the real superheroes. They battle our worst enemies-loneliness, grief, anxiety, depression, fear, and doubt-every time they come around."

"On this day, take time to remember those who have fallen. But on every day after, do more; put the freedoms they died for to greater and nobler uses."

"There are two kinds of people in this world: those who follow the popular majority, and those who possess good sense. In other words, you can either let the crowd steer you right over a cliff, or you can stop to peer beyond the brink and see how a fall will likely end in tragedy."

"I don't know how to save the world, though I do know it involves a great deal of love and kindness."

"While silently brooding, I am drawn to the start of a sweet melody that travels to my ear from afar. I smile, reminded that my heart can dance when my feet can't."

"Moments always blossom more beautifully in memories."

"To fight discouragement, remind yourself of the basics: I can write.I have the opportunity to do so. I love what I write. Now smile and be thankful."

"Laughter and love are their own forms of exercise meant to keep a body healthy."

"I am more and more convinced that some people are put in our lives solely to try our patience and tamper with our tolerance levels."

"Without you there would be no me. I am everything reflected in your eyes. I am everything approved by your smile. I am everything born of your guidance. I am me only because of you."

"The jack-o-lantern follows me with tapered, glowing eyes.His yellow teeth grin evily. His cackle I despise.But I shall have the final laugh when Halloween is through.This pumpkin king I'll split in half to make a pie for two."

"Every single voice-no matter how soft the peep-longs to be heard."

"Life is too hard to maintain a constantly serious outlook. You have to laugh at yourself and the world now and then-see humor in undesirable circumstances, even harsh situations-or you will either rot from the inside or go stark-raving mad. Humor is power against the worst oppression. It lightens heavy burdens; it allows one to smile while in agony; it eases excruciating pains. In short, humor makes the intolerable tolerable."

"Knowledge gained is as useless as prideif filed away and never applied."

"Be nice. And if you can't do that, just don't be mean."

"Be happy. Be happy for no reason at all. Believe it or not, you have the ability and free agency to make that choice."

"Sheep and goats and cowsgather 'round a manger bedto awe at a babe."

"You can teach a person all you know, but only experience will convince him that what you say is true."

"The earth provides us a brand new beginning every twenty-four hours. It is a repeated invitation to breathe in the cool morning air and start afresh; to mimic the sunrise and brighten up while reaching once more for the sky; to carry a glad song in our heart like the early birds; and, as faithfully as the morning dew, to wash off the dust from yesterday."

"Life is a voyage across troubled waters where our days are often spent clinging to the top of the highest mast, scouting for a comforting glimpse of shore."

"Life is hard and unfair. It is cruel and heartless, painful, trying, disappointing, unapologetic, and frequently downright awful. But that's not important. What's important is that through it all you learn how much you need your Heavenly Father and how much your friends need you."

"There's always another option.There's always another one.It's never only 'this' or 'that,'The moon or else the sun.Don't sigh and choose the greaterOr lesser of two plights.But look to see the stars beyondFor options vast and bright."

"Temptations don't appear nearly as harmful as the roads they lead you down."

"Son, I hope your opinion of your mother hasn't lessened, knowing what you now know. Gavin glanced up; incredulity skewed his eyebrows. His expression appeared both stunned and appalled. "Never, Father! I love her! It makes no difference to me where she came from. The man nodded, a show of relief in his features. His large hand, soft in touch, went to brush a string of hair away from his wife's peaceful profile. "Your mother loves you too, son, more than anything in the world. She worries about you, day and night. That sentiment stirred something profoundly pleasant inside the boy. He grinned at the internal warmth it created."

"You made a choice-a single choice. How neat to think you may have opened the door to a wondrous future without knowing."

"Why is the eye considered a reliable judge when it knows nothing of love or intelligence?"

"Why is it that at the very moment I need to appear graceful I stumble and fall like a klutz, as though this scene had never played through my mind differently a million times?"

"Words have less substance than air. Don't tell me about your zealous dreams, your firm convictions, your profound love-show me."

"It is a difficult thing-if not impossible-to forgive oneself for foolish errors, not for trampling a life or goring another with sharp horns, but for being the fool who opened the gate and let the bull out, blind to potential consequences."

"Remembering our loved ones is breathing life into their fading images, that we might once more see their faces and pass along a tearful "I miss you."

"Every exceptional writer holds a Master of Arts in Daydreaming."

"You pierce me with a look, a word, a gesture. And yet those same weapons could shield me from hurt if you so choose."

"Patience isn't tested when it is self-imposed and the duration is self-regulated. Patience is hardly tested when the outcome means little to you. However, when circumstances beyond your control force you to wait with baited breath knowing the outcome will affect your life substantially, that is the true test of patience. It is a cage inside a burning building where every exit is blocked by angels calmly advising you to wait a moment longer. Your choice is to either trust their words or madly claw through them."

"It is neither trials nor relationships nor successes nor failures that define a man, but the choices he makes while handling them."

"A sincere and warmly-expressed apology can produce the same effects as morphine on a suffering soul."

"To believe in yourself is to light a spark with the potential to start a fire."

"Things that remind me of Mother are these:the truth 'mid deception, a warm summer breeze,the calm within chaos, a stitch in a rip,a comforting blanket, the smile on her lip,an ocean of love in a heart big as whales,the morals in everyday stories she tells,a wink amid laughter, the wisdom in books,the peace in humility, beauty in looks,the light and the life in a ray of the sun,the hard work accomplished disguised as pure fun,concern in a handclasp, encouragement too,the hope in a clear morning sky azure blue,the power in prayers uttered soft and sincere,the faith in a promise, and joy in a tear.These things all attest to the wonder and graceof my precious mother, none else could replace."

"The power of a smile is such that even drawing a happy face on a piece of paper makes your lips turn up."

"If God were to make a million lovely flowers in your image and plant them in a garden with you among them, I would still know you by your scent and by the feel of your petals and by the crazy way you lean towards my light whenever I draw near."

"People will insist on building high and wide barriers directly in your path, often with the intent of closing you in. If you treat these obstacles like fencing walls, they will prove mightily so. I choose to see them as grand towers meant to be scaled and conquered, providing an added victory as well as a great view of the journey ahead."

"Making a wish is fun to do.Dreaming it out is much fun too.Work, and your wish just might come true."

"Write at a pace that doesn't surpass your creative flow. Don't be hasty; don't be sloppy. Don't forfeit impressive writing for an impressive word count. Because eventually it will all have to be edited, and you'll find that it is harder to make bad writing good than to make good writing better."

"Kindness solves more problems than diplomacy, wealth, intelligence, clout, force, law, and dominion combined."

"It seems a peculiar thing when I go to fill my own cup; it remains empty as if the liquid evaporates as soon as it touches the glass. Yet when I reach to top off the cups of others, my own spills over. This is the crazy magic of charity."

"Pray as if you are fully aware that the intricate timing and rotation of every celestial entity in the universe-including the coming and going of innumerable, precious life forms-does not rest in your tiny, mortal hands."