In life there are good and bad situations. But when you are down in the valley looking up at the mountain, sometimes you realize that you can see the stars a little clearer. You realize what's truly important and you know exactly what must be done to keep it just like it is.

But then I sigh, with a piece of ScriptureTell them that God bids us to do evil for good; And thus I clothe my naked villanyWith odd old ends stolen out of Holy Writ;And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.

William Shakespeare

Set your goals high and don't stop until you get there.

Bo Jackson

I was just learning to play guitar when Tracy Chapman came out. She wrote these songs, she played them by herself and I so admired her for that.

Madeleine Peyroux

There is no friendship, no love, like that of the parent for the child.

Henry Ward Beecher

Nowhere has the political power of coal been more obvious than in presidential campaigns.

Jeff Goodell

Instead of comparing our lot with that of those who are more fortunate than we are, we should compare it with the lot of the great majority of our fellow men. It then appears that we are among the privileged.

Helen Keller

A book is never a masterpiece: it becomes one. Genius is the talent of a dead man.

Edmond de Goncourt

Beware the irrational, however seductive. Shun the 'transcendent' and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself. Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don't be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence. Suspect your own motives, and all excuses. Do not live for others any more than you would expect others to live for you.

Christopher Hitchens

Read, read, read. Read everything-- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out the window.

William Faulkner

Poetry is an art, and chief of the fine art the easiest to dabble in, the hardest in which to reach true excellence.

Edmund Clarence Stedman

Politics is not about winning for the sake of winning.

Paul Wellstone

If your neighbors think you're a detective because a cop always brings you home, you might be a redneck.

Jeff Foxworthy