“The story of his downfall is soon told; for it came, as so often happens, just when he felt unusually full of high hopes, good resolutions, and dreams of a better life.”

“There was something else, she often told herself, that spring brought teachers. A sort of sadness--other people felt something like it, she supposed, at the end of the calendar year--a sadness that came from realizing that they hadn't kept the resolutions they had made in September. Resolutions to read more, to go to more concerts and plays, to get better acquainted in the community. They meant to do these things, and they usually hadn't, and they felt in the spring that they probably never would.”

“He came back full of life and hope and determination.”

“Extremely unusual though he was, at that moment Harry Potter felt just like everyone else: glad, for the first time in his life, that it was his birthday.”

“The story of redemtion and healing is that Jesus came to exchange my not-good-enough with his better-than-I-could-ever-imagine. He came to trade my life for His, my weak for His strong, my ashes for His beauty. He longs for each of us to recieve the gift of Himself.”

“The old man's head was clear and good now and he was full of resolution but he had little hope. It was too good to last, he thought. He took one look at the great fish as he watched the shark close in.”