“The Prophets, too, among us come to teach,Are one with those who from the pulpit preach;They pray, and slay, and pass away,and yet Our ills are as the pebbles on the beach.Mohammed or Messiah! Hear thou me,The truth entire nor here nor there can be;How should our God who made the sun and the moonGive all his light to One, I cannot see.”

“It was neither preaching nor praying that made a better man of me, but one or two people who believed in me better than I deserved, and I hated to disappoint them.”

“Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, the last of life, for which the first was made. Our times are in his hand who saith, 'A whole I planned, youth shows but half; Trust God: See all, nor be afraid!”

“There comes a time when those who flattered us and those whose wit and charm deceived us may leave us to our fate. Those are times when we want to be friends, good friends, common friends, loved ones, tied with immortal bonds--people who will nurse our illnesses, tolerate our eccentricities, and love us with pure, undefined affection. Then we need an unspoiled companion who will not count our wrinkles, remember our stupidities nor remember our weaknesses; then is when we need a loving companion with whom we have suffered and wept and prayed and worshipped; one with whom we have suffered sorrow and disappointments., one who loves us for what we are or intended to be rather than what we appear to be in our gilded shell.”

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.He was in the beginning with God;all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.In him was life, and the life was the light of men.The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him.He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light.The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world.He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not.He came to his own home, and his own people received him not.But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God;who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.(John bore witness to him, and cried, "This was he of whom I said, `He who comes after me ranks before me, for he was before me.'")And from his fulness have we all received, grace upon grace.For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.”

“I'll pit my God against your god any day, I say to the Calvinists. It's not their god I'm praying to.... The God I'm praying to is neither male nor female. My God is the one who exists apart from all of men's agendas, the God who takes you away when there is no possible place you can go.”