"Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God’s handwriting—a wayside sacrament.—Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing."

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

"It is the very pursuit of happiness that thwarts happiness."

~ Viktor Frankl

Read more: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/01/theres-more-to-life-than-being-happy/266805/?single_page=true#ixzz3HMxyKJW9

“A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.” -G.K. Chesterton

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery
French writer (1900 - 1944)

The world is rated R, and no one is checking IDs. Do not try to make it G by imagining the shadows away. Do not try to hide your children from the world forever, but do not try to pretend there is no danger. Train them. Give them sharp eyes and bellies full of laughter. 

- N.D. Wilson

"Maybe you cannot thrive where you are untouchable… Soul growth only happens in the soil of vulnerability. Maybe it’s time to let yourself be touched." 

~ Ann Voskamp (www.aholyexperience.com)

“To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement.” 

~ Augustine of Hippo

"Everyone can change tomorrow. Everyone solves problems tomorrow. But the only changes that matter are the ones I make today. Tomorrow is the easiest day I'll ever live. Today is the scary one, which is probably why I've spent so much time avoiding it."

~ Josh Riebock

"Your success is never final, your failure is never fatal, it is courage to continue that counts." 

~ Winston Churchill

"People are usually more convinced by reasons they discovered themselves than by those found by others."

~ Blaise Pascal

"Remember that a pail with a pinhole loses as much as the pail pushed right over. A whole life can be lost in minutes wasted… in the small moments missed."

~ Ann Voskamp

www.aholyexperience.com

"Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known." 

- A. A. Milne, Pooh's Little Instruction Book.

"My theory on housework is, if the item doesn't multiply, smell, catch fire, or block the refrigerator door, let it be. No one else cares. Why should you?" ~Erma Bombeck

"You can't reach for the sky if you're under the ceiling."
"But the ceiling keeps you out of the rain."

~Scott Bakula and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn Quantum Leap

"Never condemn each other. We condemn others only because we shun knowing ourselves. When we gaze at our own failings, we see such a swamp that nothing in another can equal it. That is why we turn away, and make much of the faults of others. Instead of condemning others, strive to reach inner peace. Keep silent, refrain from judgement." 

~ St. Seraphim of Sarov

"Just remember, there's a right way and a wrong way to do everything and the wrong way is to keep trying to make everybody else do it the right way."  

~M*A*S*H, Colonel Potter

"One should examine oneself for a very long time before thinking of condemning others."

~ Moliere

‎"You see only with your eyes, so you are easy to fool." 

~ Jackie Chan in Karate Kid

"Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome."

~ Isaac Asimov

"The biggest problem with hell is not just the hypocrisy of the church, but the notion that God is both all glorious and yet an incredible failure at having won the world over. If the vast majority will die and go to hell, then does this not bring into question the foresight of God, the effectiveness of His effort to communicate redemptive love and the flawed design He used for human beings?  Adam in his falling was more powerful than Christ in His rising." 

~ Bob Greaves