Repetition of the same thought or physical action develops into a habit which, repeated frequently enough, becomes an automatic reflex.
I build on Christ, the rock of ages; on his sure mercies described in his word, and on his promises, all which I know are yea and amen.
I am overwhelmed with gratitude, and my heart is full. ‘American Sniper’ has broken records, which follows such an honest path of Chris’s life.
My father is Italian, and I never met my paternal grandparents. The family name was ‘Caroselli’ and it was changed in the mid ’50s. I think they wanted to assimilate, which was pretty common, although I love the name ‘Caroselli.’
Everywhere across whatever sorrows of which our life is woven, some radiant joy will gaily flash past.
The real evil with which we have to contend is not the physical evil of the Famine, but the moral evil of the selfish, perverse and turbulent character of the people.
All the gold which is under or upon the earth is not enough to give in exchange for virtue.
The only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet got ourselves.
The greatest enemy to human souls is the self-righteous spirit which makes men look to themselves for salvation.
Speculative fiction encompasses that which we could actually do. Sci-fi is that which we’re probably not going to see.
There are forms of oppression and domination which become invisible – the new normal.
Care is a state in which something does matter; it is the source of human tenderness.
We are too much accustomed to attribute to a single cause that which is the product of several, and the majority of our controversies come from that.
The sudden disappointment of a hope leaves a scar which the ultimate fulfillment of that hope never entirely removes.
Most of life is showing up. You do the best you can, which varies from day to day.
This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.
Kindness is the sunshine in which virtue grows.
The truth is an objective standard by which reality is measured; it’s God’s point of view on any subject.
It is folly for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself.
Every picture shows a spot with which the artist has fallen in love.
He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.
Follow the way of life, which the Holy Prophet has shown you, for verily that is the right path.
There are quite a lot of YouTube clips of me that have gone viral. One that I think of is of a young woman at a lecture I was giving – she came from Liberty University, which is a ludicrous religious institution. She said, ‘What if you are wrong?’ and I answered that rather briefly, and that’s gone viral.
Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.
The more you like yourself, the less you are like anyone else, which makes you unique.
I wish I could throw off the thoughts which poison my happiness, but I take a kind of pleasure in indulging them.
Those are the same stars, and that is the same moon, that look down upon your brothers and sisters, and which they see as they look up to them, though they are ever so far away from us, and each other.
A man’s character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation.
There are two things that are more difficult than making an after-dinner speech: climbing a wall which is leaning toward you and kissing a girl who is leaning away from you.
It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs.
To become ‘unique,’ the challenge is to fight the hardest battle which anyone can imagine until you reach your destination.
The willow which bends to the tempest, often escapes better than the oak which resists it; and so in great calamities, it sometimes happens that light and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and presence of mind sooner than those of a loftier character.
We are trying to construct a more inclusive society. We are going to make a country in which no one is left out.
All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.
The three ordinary things that we often don’t pay enough attention to, but which I believe are the drivers of all success, are hard work, perseverance, and basic honesty.
I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.
You usually have to wait for that which is worth waiting for.
How easy it is to govern when one follows a system of consulting the will of the people and one holds as the only norm all the actions which contribute to the well being of the people.
Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking.
The fundament upon which all our knowledge and learning rests is the inexplicable.
When I was a boy, the priest, my uncle, carefully inculcated upon me this proverb, which I then learned and have ever since kept in my mind: ‘Dico tibi verum, Libertas optima rerum; Nunquam servili, sub nexu vivito, fili.’ ‘I tell you a truth: Liberty is the best of things, my son; never live under any slavish bond.’
Probably the happiest period in life most frequently is in middle age, when the eager passions of youth are cooled, and the infirmities of age not yet begun; as we see that the shadows, which are at morning and evening so large, almost entirely disappear at midday.
Generosity is not giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is giving me that which you need more than I do.
Whatever you do, do it with all your might. Work at it, early and late, in season and out of season, not leaving a stone unturned, and never deferring for a single hour that which can be done just as well now.
Every night of our lives, we dream, and our brain concocts visions which are, at least until we wake up, highly convincing. Most of us have had experiences which are verging on hallucination. It shows the power of the brain to knock up illusions.
Sleep is the interest we have to pay on the capital which is called in at death; and the higher the rate of interest and the more regularly it is paid, the further the date of redemption is postponed.
Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance.
Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men.
We are the United States of Amnesia, which is encouraged by a media that has no desire to tell us the truth about anything, serving their corporate masters who have other plans to dominate us.
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
Those things which I am saying now may be obscure, yet they will be made clearer in their proper place.
Thus they have an idol that they petition for victory in war; another for success in their labors; and so for everything in which they seek or desire prosperity, they have their idols, which they honor and serve.
Children are the hands by which we take hold of heaven.
I can very well do without God both in my life and in my painting, but I cannot, suffering as I am, do without something which is greater than I am, which is my life, the power to create.
In this world, full often, our joys are only the tender shadows which our sorrows cast.
From such crooked wood as that which man is made of, nothing straight can be fashioned.
Love is the crowning grace of humanity, the holiest right of the soul, the golden link which binds us to duty and truth, the redeeming principle that chiefly reconciles the heart to life, and is prophetic of eternal good.
Those who have virtue always in their mouths, and neglect it in practice, are like a harp, which emits a sound pleasing to others, while itself is insensible of the music.
Nobody likes to fail. I want to succeed in everything I do, which isn’t much. But the things that I’m really passionate about, if I fail at those, if I’m not successful, what do I have?
A positive atmosphere nurtures a positive attitude, which is required to take positive action.
He that cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself; for every man has need to be forgiven.
Anger is an expensive luxury in which only men of certain income can indulge.
A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life, I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth – that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire.
If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place.
