I have dipped into Ian McEwan and so on. I tend not to stick with one writer. But I dip in here and there.
Whatever starts in California unfortunately has an inclination to spread.
A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It's a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity.
I have one life and one chance to make it count for something. . . My faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference.
The measure of a society is found in how they treat their weakest and most helpless citizens.
We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.
What are the things that you can't see that are important? I would say justice, truth, humility, service, compassion, love. . . They're the guiding lights of a life.
When birds look into houses, what impossible worlds they see.
Think of the long trip home. Should we have stayed home and thought of here? Where should we be today?
Every life is precious to God. God created every one of us. He gave us a soul, and that soul will live as long as God lives.
People spend too much time finding other people to blame, too much energy finding excuses for not being what they are capable of being, and not enough energy putting themselves on the line, growing out of the past, and getting on with their lives.