“This is what God wants most from you: a relationship!”

“There exists indeed an opposition to it [building of UVA, Jefferson's secular college] by the friends of William and Mary, which is not strong. The most restive is that of the priests of the different religious sects, who dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of day-light; and scowl on it the fatal harbinger announcing the subversion of the duperies on which they live. In this the Presbyterian clergy take the lead. The tocsin is sounded in all their pulpits, and the first alarm denounced is against the particular creed of Doctr. Cooper; and as impudently denounced as if they really knew what it is.

“If there is no solution, there is no problem.”

“Learning to love yourself is the essence of receiving God’s love. It is the ointment that brings healing to your wounded soul. Until we receive God’s love and learn to love ourselves because of it, we will remain sick in our souls and live dysfunctional lives.”

“My mother is my friend Who shares with me her bread All my hopelessness cured! Her company makes me secured!”

“A few years ago, honesty was the hallmark of a man of good character. But it’s been set aside for an “It’s all right if you don’t get caught” philosophy.”

“Free will, though it makes evil possible, also makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having.”

“Live your best life!” 

“If you think of this world as a place simply intended for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable: think of it as a place for training and correction and it's not so bad.”

“Most of us go through life as failures, because we are waiting for the "time to be right" to start doing something worthwhile. Do not wait. The time will never be "just right.”

“if you develop an image of victory, success, health, abundance, joy, peace, and happiness, nothing on earth will be able to hold those things from you.”

“Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. I knew that age well; I belonged to it, and labored with it. It deserved well of its country. It was very like the present, but without the experience of the present; and forty years of experience in government is worth a century of book-reading; and this they would say themselves, were they to rise from the dead. I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had better be borne with; because, when once known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But I know also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.” 

“Nothing matters more than knowing God’s purposes for your life, and nothing can compensate for not knowing them — not success, wealth, fame, or pleasure. Without a purpose, life is motion without meaning, activity without direction, and events without reason. Without a purpose, life is trivial, petty, and pointless.”

“My Influence My life shall touch a dozen lives Before this day is done. Leave countless marks of good or ill, E’er sets the evening sun. This, the wish I always wish, The prayer I always pray; Lord, may my life help others’ lives It touches by the way.7”

“Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. HEBREWS 11:1”