"To achieve anything today, an artist has to develop a conscious strictness in respect of time which in former ages might have seemed neurotic and selfish, for he must never forget that he is living in a state of siege."  [W.H.Auden]

"I honestly think it's the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills." [Audrey Hepburn]

"I don't like formal gardens. I like wild nature."
[Walt Disney]

"When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion, we were like those who dream...our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing." [psalm 126]

"There are two ways through life; the way of nature and the way of Grace. You have to choose which one you’ll follow. Grace doesn’t try to please itself. It accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked. It accepts insults and injuries. Nature only wants to please itself and others to please it too. It likes to lord it over them. To have its own way. It finds reasons to be unhappy when all the world is shining around it and love is smiling through all things. You taught us that no one who loves the way of Grace ever comes to a bad end. I will be true to You.”
[The Tree of Life]

“I chose the specialty of surgery because of Matron, that steady presence during my boyhood and adolescence. 'What is the hardest thing you can possibly do?' she said when I went to her for advice on the darkest day of the first half of my life.

I squirmed. How easily Matron probed the gap between ambition and expediency. 'Why must I do what is hardest?'

'Because, Marion, you are an instrument of God. Don't leave the instrument sitting in its case my son. Play! Leave no part of your instrument unexplored. Why settle for 'Three Blind Mice' when you can play the 'Gloria'?

'But, Matron, I can't dream of playing Bach...I couldn't read music.

'No, Marion,' she said her gaze soft...'No, not Bach's 'Gloria'. Yours! Your 'Gloria' lives within you. The greatest sin is not finding it, ignoring what God made possible in you.”
[Abraham Verghese]

"But because God was so gracious, so very generous, here I am. And I'm not about to let his grace go to waste." [paul, 1 cor. 15:10]

"My politics were those of prophylaxis, my opponents preferred those of palliation." [Rudolf Virchow]

"Life is short, and Art long; the crisis fleeting; experience perilous, and decision difficult."... “Wherever the art of Medicine is loved, there is also a love of Humanity.”
 [Hippocrates]

“I always entertain great hopes.” [Robert Frost]

"Even here the children laugh..."
 [Alan Paton, Cry, The Beloved Country]

"There's just two ways to lose yourself in this life
And neither way is safe.
In my dreams I see visions of the future,
But today we have today.
And where will I find You?...
In the currency of Grace,
is where my song begins."
[Switchfoot]

"So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover's life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God." (from Phil. 1 in the msg)

"I have been ravaged by intent. I have been moved by tenderness.I have been changed by a warring Love."
[Ashley]

"When people say 'take care' I say, 'rubbish, take risk!"
[Andrew White]

"Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love." [Martin Luther King Jr.]

"Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day." [Pooh's Little Instruction Book]

"without any doubt he was
whatever(first and last)

most people fear most:
a mystery for which iv'e
no word except alive
—that is,completely alert
and miraculously whole;"
[cummings]

"we're a mystery that will never happen again, a miracle which has never happened before—" [cummings]

"It is a safe thing to trust Him to fulfill the desires which He creates." [Amy Carmichael]

"We must pray without tiring, for the salvation of mankind does not depend on material success; nor on sciences that cloud the intellect. Neither does it depend on arms and human industries, but on Jesus alone." [Mother Cabrini]

"Every man gives his life for what he believes. And every woman gives her life for what she believes. Sometimes people believe in little or in nothing, yet they give their lives to that little or nothing. One life is all we have. We live it, and it's gone. But to live without belief is more terrible than dying, even more terrible than dying young." [Joan of Arc]

"Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair."  [chesterton]

"However, cheer up, and whenever you are fed up with life, start writing: ink is the great cure for all human ills, as I have found out long ago." [C.S. Lewis]

"Idealism detached from action is just a dream. But idealism allied with pragmatism, with rolling up your sleeves and making the world bend a bit, is very exciting. It's very real. It's very strong."
[Bono]

"I grew up in this town, my poetry was born between the hill and the river, it took its voice from the rain, and like the timber, it steeped itself in the forests."
[Pablo Neruda]

"My struggle is harsh and I come back
with eyes tired
at times from having seen
the unchanging earth,
but when your laughter enters it rises to the sky seeking me
...and it opens for me all the doors of life

...in the darkest
hour your laughter
opens, and if suddenly
you see my blood staining
the stones of the street,
laugh, because your laughter
will be for my hands
like a fresh sword."
[P. Neruda]

"So I will fight this good fight of faith, and I will do it all for love.  You are my great reward, you're so worth fighting for, and I can't wait to see your face."  [kristene mueller, homeward bound]

"Oh laughing man, what have you won?
don't tell me what cannot be done."
[the innocence mission]

"This is the call to arms:
Let the great rebellion of our generation be one of purity. Let us not be known throughout the world for drunkeness, loneliness, broken marriages, teenage pregnancies, greed, drug habits, gang culture, and everything else that makes us look like people who are lost. But let us be renowned and respected for our wisdom, our restraint, our passion, our honour, our integrity, our joy, our fulfillment, our trustworthiness and most importantly of all let us be known as nation who loves each other. Let us turn against this tide of conformity, turn from the values of the world and turn our backs on all the things that weaken us and embrace what makes us strong:
We are called to be in the world but not of the world: to see beauty with our hearts and not our eyes, to see love as a virtue and not a feeling, to value mankind equally, to be fearless, radical and transparent."
[king charles]