“You cannot come to Christ unless the Spirit of God brings you. But what if you ignore His warnings? Then you are in the gravest danger, for some day God will no longer be speaking to you. Then it will be too late. Come to Christ while there is still time. Christ, God's greater Ark, stands ready to welcome you to safety today.”

“If your thoughts are as tall as the height of your ceiling, you can’t fly above your room.”

“We can hold nothing back [from God]. He must control and dominate us [wholly]. It is a surrender without any conditions attached. This surrender is a definite and conscious act on our part in obedience to the Word of God.”

“Nobody is better than you and remember, you are better than nobody.

“Your attitude, more than your aptitude, will determine your altitude.”

“But whenever I tried to pin down this idea of self-esteem, the specific qualities we hoped to inculcate, the specific means by which we might feel good about ourselves, the conversation always seemed to follow a path of infinite regress. Did you dislike yourself because of your color or because you couldn’t read and couldn’t get a job? Or perhaps it was because you were unloved as a child—only, were you unloved because you were too dark? Or too light? Or because your mother shot heroin into her veins … and why did she do that anyway? Was the sense of emptiness you felt a consequence of kinky hair or the fact that your apartment had no heat and no decent furniture? Or was it because deep down you imagined a godless universe? Maybe one couldn’t avoid such questions on the road to personal salvation. What I doubted was that all the talk about self-esteem could serve as the centerpiece of an effective black politics. It demanded too much honest self-reckoning from people; without such honesty, it easily degenerated into vague exhortation. Perhaps with more self-esteem fewer blacks would be poor, I thought to myself, but I had no doubt that poverty did nothing for our self-esteem. Better to concentrate on the things we might all agree on. Give that black man some tangible skills and a job. Teach that black child reading and arithmetic in a safe, well-funded school. With the basics taken care of, each of us could search for our own sense of self-worth.”

“This is our dilemma--either to taste and not to know or to know and not to taste--or, more strictly, to lack one kind of knowledge because we are in an experience or to lack another kind because we are outside it. [. . .] Of this tragic dilemma myth is the partial solution. In the enjoyment of a great myth we come nearest to experiencing as a concrete what can otherwise be understood only as an abstraction.”

“Where God guides, he provides. What he calls you to do, he equips you to do. He doesn’t need your strength and willpower, but he does need your commitment. He wants you to live an abundant life that includes a vibrant faith, a vibrant body, and a vibrant mind.”

“Children must be taught obedience just as much as they need to be taught to read and write.”

“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.”

“God says clearly that vengeance is His, and our position is to be one of faith in Him, waiting patiently and lovingly as He works justice in our lives. When”

“The best thing a man can do for his children is love their mother.”

“We must practice the Presence of God. Jesus said, “Lo, I am with you always” [Matthew 28:20]. Remember, Christ is always near us.”

“Big dreams are marathons. Passionate actions are marathons of marathons! Waiters don't deserve it; Quitters don't get it!”

“Position is a poor substitute for influence.”