Richard Paul Evans

“I have found that the people who shout their opinion the loudest are usually the ones most insecure in their position.I don't think it is as much a human foible as it is a human curse that we cannot understand the beauty of a thing until it is gone.It's not that there wasn't anything to say. It's that there was too much and words were poor substitutes for our feelings.But Korczak's greatest legacy is not a public one, the massive stone mountain that he conquered, but the mountain he first conquered in himself-a mountain that he climbed alone-in this we can all empathize. (about the sculptor of Crazy Horse)”

“To forgive is to unlock the cage of another's folly to set ourselves free.”

“When we hate someone we make them more powerfull than they are.”

“Like all living things, love, too, struggles against hardship, and in the process sheds its fatuous skin to expose one composed of more than just a storm of emotion-one of loyalty and divine friendship. And though it may be temporarily blinded by adversity, it never gives in or up, holding tight to lofty ideals that transcend this earth and time- while its counterfeit simply concludes it was mistaken and quickly runs off to find the next real thing.”

“There are two kinds of people. Those who climb mountains and those who sit in the shadow of the mountains and critique the climbers.”

“Without great mountains we cannot reach great heights. And we are born to reach great heights”

“For most of my life I have thought of grace as a hope of a bright tomorrow in spite of the darkness of today--and this is true. In this way we are all like Pamela, walking a road to grace--hoping for mercy. What we fail to realize is that grace is more than our destination, it is the journey itself, manifested in each breath and with each step we take. Grace surrounds us, whirls about us like the wind, falls on us like rain. Grace sustains us on our journeys, no matter how perilous they may be and, make no mistake, they are all perilous. We need not hope for grace, we merely need to open our eyes to its abundance. Grace is all around us, not just in the hopeful future but in the miracle of now.”

“The more I study history the more I realize how little mankind has changed. There are no new scripts, just different actors.”

“My Dear Son,I am so very proud of you. Now, as you embark on a new journey, I'd like to share this one piece of advice. Always, always remember that - adversity is not a detour. It is part of the path.You will encounter obstacles. You will make mistakes. Be grateful for both. Your obstacles and mistakes will be your greatest teachers. And the only way to not make mistakes in this life is to do nothing, which is the biggest mistake of all. Your challenges, if you let them, will become your greatest allies. Mountains can crush or raise you, depending on which side of the mountain you choose to stand on. All history bears out that the great, those who have changed the world, have all suffered great challenges. And, more times than not it's precisely those challenges that, in God's time, lead to triumph.Abhor victimhood. Denounce entitlement. Neither are gifts, rather cages to damn the soul. Everyone who has walked this earth is a victim of injustice. Everyone.Most of all, do not be too quick to denounce your sufferings. The difficult road you are called to walk may, in fact be your only path to success.”

“I have wondered why it is that our greatest triumphs spring from our greatest extremity and adversity. Perhaps it is because we are so resistant to change, we only move when our seat becomes too hot to occupy.”

“Life is the soil, our choices and actions the sun and rain, but our dreams are the seeds.”

“Procrastination is the thief of dreams”

“I believe it's after the honeymoon ends that true love begins. It's in the hard times that the greater virtues of love reveal themselves, like tolerance and patience and kindness.”

“I am grateful for the Christmases of my life”

“The sound of a kiss is not as strong as that of a cannon, but its echo endures much longer.”

“The warrior who goes off to battle should not boast as the one who returns from it.”

“I don't know what is behind the curtain; only that I need to find out.”

“The sweetness of reunion is the joy of heaven.”

“I am facing the most difficult thing of my life, my own greatest failure.”

“Often times, the greatest peace comes of surrender.”

“Sometimes its not the strength but gentleness that cracks the hardest shells.”

“I am lonely, I am lonely, I am lonely, I am lonely, I am lonely. How appropriate that I write this to myself.”

“The truist indication of gratitude is to return what you are grateful for.”

“Helping others carries its own rewards, the first of which is a return to humanity.”

“I have learned that real angels don't have gossamer white robes and Cherubic skin, they have calloused hands and smell of the days' sweat.”

“Truth is patient. It can afford to be for eventually it will have its way.”

“The law of centrifugal force seems to be as true for the human condition as it is for the Newtonian mechanics. The faster our lives spin, the more things tend to fly apart.”

“What a difference having a friend makes.”

“Under the right circumstances, a tiny spark can grow into an inferno that can overcome an entire city. So can an idea.”

“Only those who never step, never stumble.”

“Never criticize a man until you've walked a mile in his shoes. That way he can't do anything to you because you're a mile away and you've got his shoes.”

“I once heard it said that everyone needs love-and if they're denied, they'll find it, or a reasonable substitute somewhere.”

“You know how before you buy a house you hire someone to come check it out and write a homebuyer's report? Someone should do that for husbands. Before you get married, you should have a complete inspection to find out what's broken, if it's fixable, and how much it will cost to repair.”

“There's no hurt so great that love can't heal it.”

“I don't believe society has ever grown more tolerant. It just changes targets.”

“As we walk our individual life journeys, we pick up resentments and hurts, which attach themselves to our souls like burrs clinging to a hiker's socks. These stowaways may seem insignificant at first, but, over time, if we do not occasionally stop and shake them free, the accumulation becomes a burden to our souls.”

“Mr. Vey, you cannot be stuffed into a locker without your consent." Dallstrom said, which may be the dumbest thing ever said in a school. "You should have resisted. That's like blaming someone who was struck by lightning for getting in the way.”

“Mr. Dallstrom is a bald, scarecrow of a man with a poochy stomache. Think of a pregnant Abraham Lincoln.”

“We can spend our days bemoaning our losses, or we can grow from them. Ultimately the choice is ours. We can be victims of circumstance or masters of our own fate, but make no mistake, we cannot be both.The Walk - Epilogue Page 288”

“The greatest shackles we bear in thislife are those forged by our own fears”

“The most difficult of decisions are often not the ones in which we cannot determine the correct course; rather the ones in which we are certain of the path but fear the journey.”

“I love when I can reboot people when they are being mean to others...”

“It is in the darkest skies that stars are best seen.”

“. . . Harboring an emotion as powerful as gratitude has power of its own.”

“Joy isn't the natural response to blessings - joy is what comes from acknowledging them.”

“And if our lives are but a single flash in the dark hollow of eternity, then if, but for the briefest of moments, we shine - then how brilliantly our light has burned. And as starlight knows no boundary of space or time, so too, our illumination will shine forth throughout all eternity, for darkness has no power to quell such light. And this is a lesson we must all learn and take to heart - that all light is eternal and all love is light. And it must forever be so.”

“We are all in motion, always. Those who are not climbing towards something are descending toward nothing.”

“You're the type who thinks of the glass as being half full, instead of half empty. "No," she said, "I'm just grateful for the glass.”

“I'm no one important or famous, no matter. It is better to be loved by one person who knows your soul than millions who don't even know your phone number. I have loved and been loved as deeply as a man can hope for. Which makes me a lucky man. It also means that I have suffered. Life has taught me that to fly, you must first accept the possibility of falling.”

“Some people in this world have stopped looking for beauty, then wonder why their lives are so ugly. Don't be like them. The ability to appreciate beauty is of God. Especially in one another. Look for beauty in everyone you meet, and you'll find it. Everyone carries divinity within them. And everyone we meet has something to impart.”