Freedom is only granted us that obedience may be more perfect.

I'm going to let people know that it's cool to have a child and be young and still be a good mom. It's really tough, but I'm doing it.

Brandy Norwood

I find, in being black, a thing of beauty: a joy a strength a secret cup of gladness.

Ossie Davis

Vast is the field of Science. The more a man knows, the more he will find he has to know.

Samuel Richardson

Nothing leads to good that is not natural.

Friedrich von Schiller

God is subtle, but he is not malicious.

Albert Einstein

We feel at first as if some opportunities of kindness and sympathy were lost, but learn afterward that any pure grief is ample recompense for all. That is, if we are faithful; -- for a spent grief is but sympathy with the soul that disposes events, and is as natural as the resin of Arabian trees. -- Only nature has a right to grieve perpetually, for she only is innocent. Soon the ice will melt, and the blackbirds sing along the river which he frequented, as pleasantly as ever. The same everlasting serenity will appear in this face of God, and we will not be sorrowful, if he is not.

Henry David Thoreau

Do the things you know, and you shall learn the truth you need to know.

George MacDonald

I have nothing to declare except my genius.

Oscar Wilde

But, sooner or later I'd love to do a comedy. I mean I think that, you know, people don't think that that's in my wheelhouse because I've sort of played a lot of dramatic stuff and that's certainly a side of myself that I want at some point in the right context, in the right stuff, that I find really funny.

Matthew Fox

Simple, sincere people seldom speak much of their piety. It shows itself in acts rather than in words, and has more influence than homilies or protestations. Beth could not reason upon or explain the faith that gave her courage and patience to give up life, and cheerfully wait for death. Like a confiding child, she asked no questions, but left everything to God and nature, Father and Mother of us all, feeling sure that they, and they only, could teach and strengthen heart and spirit for this life and the life to come. She did not rebuke Jo with saintly speeches, only loved her better for her passionate affection, and clung more closely to the dear human love, from which our Father never means us to be weaned, but through which He draws us closer to Himself. She could not say, I'm glad to go, for life was very sweet for her. She could only sob out, I try to be willing, while she held fast to Jo, as the first bitter wave of this great sorrow broke over them together.

Louisa May Alcott, Little Women,

Columbus discovered no isle or key so lonely as himself.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The guarantee that our self enjoys an intended relation to the outer world is most, if not all, we ask from religion. God is the self projected onto reality by our natural and necessary optimism. He is the not-me personified.

John Updike