“By turns our purity inspires and our impurity casts us down.”

“Our friends should be companions who inspire us, who help us rise to our best.”

“Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey towards it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us. ...Hope sweetens the memory of experiences well loved. It tempers our troubles to our growth and our strength. It befriends us in the dark hours, excites us in bright ones. It lends promise to the future and purpose to the past. It turns discouragement to determination.Samuel Smiles”

“God alone knows exactly what you and I must endure in order to form His character in us. It is in our trials that God refines us and removes our impurities. Like refined gold, when we pass through our trials, people will see His perfect reflection in us.”

“Our trials are supposed to turn us toward God, but we whine and complain and wish someone would turn down the fire so we could have our old life back the way it was.”

“Inspiration will always sing; inspiration will never explain. We often sing lullabies to our children that we ourselves may sleep. All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.”