We like to think we're in control but we never are.

How strange it is beholding this,and, very confident,proclaim that such magnificenceoccurred by accident.

Life did come with a manual.

Solitude is the canvas of a thinking mind.

If you can't write, read.If you can't read, walk.Or walk and read, then write.

Solitary walks are great for getting new ideas. It's like you're in a video game and you pick up idea coins on the way.

Those who are acquainted with failure acquire the unique ability to dare without fear of it.

It's only awkward if it matters.

You don't have to live happily ever after with every single person in your life in order to live happily ever after. Some unfortunate endings are necessary.

It reveals how well you value someone - the way you handle their belongings.

The horizon changes but the sun does not.

If difficult times teach us the most important lessons, we should then learn to read difficult books.

Life is a curriculum unique to every student.

Don't be afraid to make mistakes. But if you do, make new ones. Life is too short to make the wrong choice twice.

Take care not to welcome today the terrors that will make yesterday's demons look like angels.

Nobody ever goes before their time.

Sometimes exhaustion is not a result of too much time spent on something, but of knowing that in its place, no time is spent on something else.

There is never enough time to enjoy what you love.

One can hardly do anything productive when one knows there is cake in the fridge.

Most often when I stammerThat's my brainCorrecting my grammer.

She was a poetry book with the wrong dust jacket, shelved in the Reference section.

I often buy print books only after I've read them in some digital form or other. It's my odd way of keeping the physical presence of the best among multitudes. And I only have one shelf.

Non-fiction is to theory as fiction is to experience.

Every morning I tell myself, "I'll sleep early tonight." And every night I say, "One more chapter.

Books. It's always easier to tell people that a character is funny rather than attempt to hit the punchline of a joke that character would've said. But if we all simply told, books would cease to exist. And so would empathy. And feeling.

When I trust someone I do it without doubt or fear or reservation. And then I work on a Plan B.

Indifference destroys vocation unlike any other intangible force, for the reason that it shakes the very core of our motivation for doing what we do.

Much of what I learned about forgiveness I learned by inhabiting the lives of my characters. Even villains act with reasonable intent. Mercy is easier with understanding. Still, it helps that on paper I can kill them off.

If I exist, then surely there must be someone else out there like me.

Always make an effort to be around people who will help you grow.

Not all friends know they have lost you.

Remember the friends who stuck with you when they thought you had nothing.

If a normally kind, agreeable person makes an enemy of you, you ought to ask yourself why.

Yes you have returnedAnd things are as they wereBut this you cannot hide,A part of you has died.

You can only take too much in pursuit of something you don't really want.

When we get too comfortable, we stop dreaming.

If we didn't have nightmares, we wouldn't wake up every morning chasing our dreams.

But men are bound to saySome things that, though untrue,Will get you down the aisleUntil you say "I do.

If this cursed and fallen worldholds such beauty as what I see,Imagine the beauty of paradisethat's gladly waiting for me.

It is unjust, but only Christlike, to suffer persecution for doing what is right.

I write things down because my thoughts get too heavy in my head and it hurts my neck.

They always tell you to do what you love. But they forget to add that writing doesn't pay by the hour.

I am bothered by poems I don't understand.

If we can't have world peace, I'll settle for a quiet room.

When a bookworm finally decides to leave the house, perhaps to explore some literary destination in one of her novels, she will be surprised to know that there is a volatile, often antagonistic force in the real world known as the weather.

Some read to learn, some to laugh, and some to live.

Oh you cut your hair! What happened? Are you going through a breakup or something?""My favorite character died.

The sad thing about reading the book and then watching the movie is that they have to die all over again.

For a storyteller, an open ending leaves much room for imagination; for the inquisitive reader, however, it is a source of great anxiety.

If you can't give it all you've got, don't bother.

Sometimes the gap between what you are and what you want to be is a little piece of paper called your college degree. So jump.

Not everything you're good at is what you're called to do.

There's something very enticing about an empty bench under a tree. And if it's facing a river, that's the bench for me.

I know I can't own a hilltop, a meadow, or a mountainside. But keeping it a secret somehow makes it mine.

There will always be one or two things bothering the person next to you. And if that person happens to be looking heavenward, it’s because it helps us to remind ourselves that God is bigger than our problems.

Some scars don't hurt. Some scars are numb. Some scars rid you of the capacity to feel anything ever again.

Even the enemy needs permission from God to do what he wants with you.

If you think about life simply as one big waiting room for eternity, who cares if it's not fully air conditioned?

There is comfort, even among strangers, when people find something they are equally passionate about.

Pay attention to what you wish you were doing when you're doing something else.

What a loss it would be if feminism killed chivalry.

I had no money to start,For Jack decreed in his pride:The Caveman's wife didn't work - It was his job to provide.A brief reminder right here:Let men believe they are shrewd,But even women of oldEmbroidered mittens for food.

How might it feel to be fully present in every moment all of the time?

There is something quite wonderful about sharing a secret.

Invisibility can be good as a superpower. But psychiatry reveals people don't like it very much.

She didn't realize she was in a prison until she collided with the bars.

One mistake is all they see.

Woe to him who offends a patient man who has just reached his limit.

Try staying awake for 24 hours and you'll realize just how many needless worries your mind instantly shuts out.

As a child, I was very careful not to erase my mother's writing on the chalkboard because I would miss her.

There is a way of reacting to insult that gives people the impression that you want more. I don't know what it is, but I seem to have mastered it.

Dear World,I exist.Deal with it.

Dear Teenage Self,That guy you're crazy about,Will ask you out On a dateIn about ten years, so don't fretYou'll get there yet.But fate is cruelOn that day,That feeling will have gone away.

There is more to hear in what is not said.

Before you reach the point of forgiveness, you go through the phase where you pray... for every possible misfortune and ill luck to strike them dead while you sit and watch.

And with the Savior's passing came Satan's sure defeatChrist whispered, "It is finished," for payment was complete.I could not earn salvation, it's been dispensed for freeAnd mercy's gates would open, as He has died for me.

Maybe forgiveness means you stop keeping tabs on those people. Wounds can't heal if you keep touching them.

Have you ever had a dream so strong it slapped you in the face every time you looked away?

If I don't talk about it, it's either very displeasing or very precious to me.

Dementia: Is it more painful to forget, or to be forgotten?

But that was just a shadow of what would come to pass:When one appointed season Christ came to die at last.And in the name of justice they flogged him like a thief,But willing was the victim of human disbelief.

Kindness is a language more often misunderstood than taken at face value.

She's one in a million. And that's why she's lonely.

Very often I realize that the time people spend apart is as important in maintaining relationships as the time they spend together.

Going away won't change anything if you're running from yourself.

Not all writers are silently suffering inside. But it certainly helps.

True ability is undisturbed by pretentious criticism.

It's a singular sort of pain, watching the most beautiful creature self-destruct because you weren't able to find the red wire.

Much of someone's real character lies in what they don't say about themselves.

Don't stay in the harbour and miss the greatness of the sea. Just because everyone else is anchored, doesn't mean you have to be.

Those who claim to be on the side of good yet do nothing to fight evil are on the side of evil.

You won't stress over it unless you care.

I'm not an insomniac. It's just that my mind is in the best position to catch the weight of all hovering possibilities the moment I lie down.

Be wary of smooth talkers. Words are rarely at your disposal if something is wholly, truly, completely true.

Silence isn't always agreement. Sometimes people no longer argue because they no longer care.

Some secrets are heavy because they aren't yours to tell.

May any praise of your character come from others instead of yourself.

It's not about the extent to which something happened or did not happen; it's whether we choose to confront evil and call it what it is, or simply let it pass because it 'wasn't enough of a big deal'.

It's not about the extent to which something happened or did not happen; it's whether we choose to confront evil and call it what it is, or simply let it pass because it 'wasn't enough of a big deal.

For in that perfect garden when one day entered sin,An animal was murdered for garments made of skin.When figs of human effort produced religious strife,The Father tailored clothing for Adam and his wife.

Some things sound better if they don't come from you.

Everything seems so small, so trivial, when you're on the right altitude.

How did I prepare for night shifts? When I was a small, anxious kid, I checked my mom in her sleep to make sure she was still breathing.

How difficult it is to find solitude in a world that constantly demands your attention.

Be thankful when you find yourself worrying about the smallest things, for it often means there aren't any bigger things to truly worry about.

It's because the door hasn't been closed yet that the nightmares still find their way in.

If people keep stepping on you, wear a pointy hat.

When you are entrusted with a secret, you become irrevocably accountable for what you do or don't do after your mind is colored by the knowledge of it.

Ambition is a stairway that never ends.

You will do well not to write for money, not because you won't get rich doing it, but because writing fueled by that sort of motivation becomes dull and lifeless and mediocre.

Not everything that happens in your life has to hit you like a hurricane.

Frustration often steers you to the right path.

What advantage has the person who will not listen over the one who cannot hear?

Take comfort in the knowledge that you are different, even from the different ones.

I think the worst sort of time travel is how the clock speeds up when I'm on my break.

There is a real danger when caring begins to lose its emotional dimension and becomes nothing but a verb.

The more time you have to do things, the less you are able to get done.

When people say they're unemployed, bored, or have nothing to do, I sigh and think, "If only time were transferable.

When we're struck with cruelty, we can either inflict the same on others like it's a rite of passage, or decide that here is where it stops.