"Gratitude is medicine for a heart devastated by tragedy. If you can only be thankful for the blue sky, then do so."

"Brazen it out! Throw away the scabbard! Grit your teeth, buckle down, and die with your boots on! Or in other words, be determined and resolved until you accomplish the thing you set out to accomplish."

"Turn around. you've got grass and dead flowers. My fingers naturally began to comb through my long, black strands, shaking things loose as Sarti carefully removed more stubborn pieces. The flowers had been left over from my forced marriage to Thaddeus. The grass, from a sensual night with Kresh the eve of my honeymoon. Devilish irony."

"It's none of your concern what others say or think about you. Your happiness is your own responsibility."

"I believe the main purpose of life is to accept with gratitude what you've been blessed with so that you may use those gifts to mold yourself into the best person you can possibly be. Learning to discern things of true value from those of little or no worth is part of the process."

"Vengeance is a monster of appetite, forever bloodthirsty and never filled."

"A single act of kindness is like a drop of oil on a patch of dry skin-seeping, spreading, and affecting more than the original need."

"Why must you know the details of my troubles to have compassion? Is it not enough to show compassion simply because you know that everyone has troubles?"

"Stand tall on the summit after a tedious climb. Take in the remarkable scenery and the exhilaration of accomplishment. But don't pause for long, there are greater mountains to climb while you still possess the drive and capacity to do so."

"It is tempting to quit striving toward a goal when you have neither the time, the resources, the support, the means, nor perhaps the confidence in talent to reach the level of standing you wish to reach. But these are not reasons to quit. Move forward anyway. Try your best. Put what little you do have into accomplishing what you can, because along the way you may attain a portion of what you feel is lacking. And owning a portion of a dream is better than owning no dream at all. Never give up."

"Had she any respect for him at all, his words would've affected her. But no value accompanies comments spewed from the mouth of a brute."

"Some things can't be taught, they can only be discovered."

"Experience is the catalyst for all great stories."

"Sadness is like sandpaper; it rubs at our sharper edges, softening and humbling us, making us ready for a coat of compassion."

"There are things known-things experienced, felt, and understood-that words hold no power to convey. Attempting to do so only dilutes their substance and does them injustice."

"Beauty exists, even in unlikely places. The key isn't to open your eyes but to open your heart."

"Is anything truly impossible? Or is it that the path to our goals appears too unclear to follow? It seems to me that if you seek hard enough, pray hard enough, you usually stumble across a scattering of breadcrumbs that marks the trail leading to the goal you once considered beyond your reach."

"It's frustrating when our best efforts to help people fail. But if we could see life through their weary eyes and experience their trials with the same frayed emotions, we might understand why."

"Time passes..and a billion lives are affected in ways we'll never know."

"Vultures pick the meat clean off a bone. Guilt eats at the marrow, leaving a man hollow."

"A snake bites your ankle.Recoiling, you scream.Fearing poison, your mind slips into a dream......where a man bites your ankle.Expecting no guile, 'Again' softly falls from your lips with a smile.Yet the man and the snake are the same.Your perception is only to blame."

"Even among familiar faces, people often feel invisible and desolate, like an island in cold waters or a shadow apart from the crowd. Be the reason another never feels alone."

"Fearing the night won't keep the sun from setting."

"Church was never meant to be a place for gods to gather, but for devils wanting to shed their horns for halos."

"Love tickles parts of you that, prior to its influence, you didn't even know could feel."

"Never believe you're so great or important, so right or proud, that you cannot kneel at the feet of someone you hurt and offer a humble, sincere apology."

"Don't seek to be happy; let everyone else chase after that rainbow. Seek to be kind, and you'll find the rainbow follows you."

"If your best friend truly is the person who knows you completely and loves you anyway, wouldn't that be your mother?"

"It's okay to be absurd, ridiculous, and downright irrational at times; silliness is sweet syrup that helps us swallow the bitter pills of life."

"Sometimes the craziest laugh in the world is the only one that will save your sanity."

"Imagine in vibrant, wonderful detail your heart's desire-a reality only you can envision, an adventure only you can direct.Then cradle your creation. Caress it. Mold it. Coddle it until it comes to life.And when your precious treasure grows so grand as to steal your breath away, set it free for all the world to experience. For that is how you live your dreams."

"Easter is the miracle of transformation as seen in the change of seasons, in the maturation of mortal persons, and in the resurrection of souls."

"As a writer, I see the saga of your life in a single glimpse. It may be inaccurate, but my version doesn't lack for creativity."

"I have a funny side. I have a soft and sympathetic side. I have a serious side, and a seriously romantic side. I have lots of sides; it's the main course I haven't quite figured out."

"Thanks, Ian, but sometimes there's just nothing you can do. Her feet moved forward again towards the center of Lacsar Forest. "That's not true, Eena. I can always listen."

"I don't understand why when I wish for happiness it inevitably rains. However, I do tend to find myself grateful for sunlight once the storm ceases."

"Those things that challenge the worst in us tend to strengthen the best in us."

"As I quietly stare off into space, eyes glazed over and brow thoughtfully taut, know that I am going about my business. I am a storyteller. Daydreaming is the best part of my job."

"I won't lie-I don't."

"An artist is merely a tool with which art molds itself."

"Effective parenting requires being the grown up version of what you want your children to be. Why? Because example is the most compelling superpower."

"A great many problems could be solved by nothing more than a change in thinking."

"You cannot know what I do not tell you, yet you will be judged harshly for not knowing."

"Aging is a mortal term that my immortal spirit doesn't quite grasp."

"Be careful what you wish for. It may turn out that making the wish was the only good part."

"He panted over me, winded by his own absurd lecture. The stench of his alcoholic breath stung my nose. Again I didn't answer. I hoped he'd tire out and end his speech and hobble back to the living room without touching me. Such hopes were unlikely, as was the case this time. "Answer me, you good-for-nuthin' wench! The pain bit instantly as his hand connected with my cheek. I shook my head in answer to his crazy questions, feeling a rise of warm tears."

"Validate my existence with your words and I will speak to you all the day long."

"Nothing in this world compares to the comfort and security of having someone just hold your hand."

"My pain builds like storm clouds-massive, dark, and heavy with teardrops. Moisture falls torrential as if my world is a violent, eternal downpour; however, at long last the source runs dry and the bitter storm does cease. Blue skies dare to glow where the gloom has dissipated. I breathe it in, hoping to cleanse my inner soul. A laden heart tells me the truth: the clear sky is an illusion. Old pain rushes back like a flood, providing means for clouds to form and expand once again until it is too much to bear and the heaviness turns to rain. I cannot find refuge from this woe. It is my never-ending heartache."

"I hang around kids so people will assume when I act like one it's because I'm babysitting."