It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
Alfred Alder

An open ear is the only believable sign of an open heart.
David Augsburger

If you think you understand, it isn't God.
St. Augustine of Hippo

Hell is full of good intentions or desires.
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153)

The paradox of control is simple. The more we try to control life, the less control we have.
Joan Borysenko, Ph.D.

It is a fact of life that joy and resentment cannot coexist.
Dr. Bob Bushong, pastor

Love means to love that which is unlovable, or it is no virtue at all; forgiving means to pardon that which is unpardonable, or it is no virtue at all.
G.K. Chesterton

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.
Teilhard de Chardin, French philosopher

You might as well not be alive if you're not in awe of God.
Albert Einstein, mathematician

Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.
Albert Einstein, mathematician

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words.
St. Francis of Assisi

All the masterpieces of art contain both light and shadow. A happy life is not one filled with only sunshine, but one which uses both light and shadow to produce beauty.
Billy Graham, evangelist

Peace is not made at the council table or by treaties, but in the hearts of men.
Herbert Hoover, U.S. President

Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., pastor and civil rights leader

Faith is believing in, not believing that.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., pastor and civil rights leader

Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., pastor and civil rights leader

It seems to me that we often, almost sulkily, reject the good that God offers us because, at the moment, we expected some other good.
C.S. Lewis, writer

All that is not eternal is eternally useless.
C.S. Lewis, writer

Prayer is not a substitute for action, prayer is an action for which there is no substitute.
Max Lucado, author

God goes to those who have time to hear him -- so on that cloudless night he went to simple shepherds.
Max Lucado, author

Truth isn't about facts or figures or things you memorize. Truth is ultimately all about a Relationship.
Dr. Phil Maynard, pastor

Love cures people--both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.
Karl Menninger

Do you want lies, do you want truth, / Or do you want love?
Cindy Morgan, from her song "God Is Love"

You can drift into sin but not into righteousness.
Leon Morris, author

Happiness and joy are not one in the same. Happiness is the elation that accompanies good fortune, while joy is the evidence of God's presence in the human experience. Joy is not a destination; it is a way of travelling.
Mary Manin Morrissey, pastor

Believe there is a great power silently working all things for good, behave yourself and never mind the rest.
Beatrix Potter, author

I believe You have an exclamation point for every question mark.
Chris Rice, composer and performer, from his song "Naive"

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.
Bertrand Russell

What men usually ask for when they pray to God is that two and two may not make four.
Russian proverb

A generous prayer is never presented in vain; the petition may be refused, but the petitioner is always, I believe, rewarded by some gracious visitation.
Robert Louis Stevenson, author

It is a great mistake to think that God is chiefly interested in religion.
William Temple

I would rather make mistakes in kindness and compassion than work miracles in unkindness and hardness.
Mother Teresa, nun and nurse

There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in - that we do it to God, to Christ, and that's why we try to do it as beautifully as possible.
Mother Teresa, nun and nurse

Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing God's gift of Himself.
Mother Teresa, nun and nurse

It is in the silence of the heart that God speaks.
Mother Teresa, nun and nurse

We can do no great things; only small things with great love.
Mother Teresa, nun and nurse

What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.
Mother Teresa, nun and nurse

Doubt is an essential part of faith.
Paul Tillich, writer, from his book The Theology of Culture

There is nothing you can do that will make God love you less. There is nothing you can do to make God love you more. God's love for you is infinite, perfect and eternal.
Desmond Tutu, South African bishop

The problem with a living sacrifice is that it can crawl off the altar, so you may have to resurrender your life fifty times a day.
Rick Warren, pastor, from his book The Purpose Driven Life

The best use of life is love. The best expression of love is time. The best time to love is now.
Rick Warren, pastor, from his book The Purpose Driven Life

We ought to live each moment as if all Eternity converged upon it.
Henry Nelson Wiemann

The spiritual life is not a generic undertaking, despite the fact that it is often characterized as such. Rather, it involves the unique encounter of a particular woman or man in her or his concrete history and circumstance with the God who dared and continues to dare to be incarnate in human form. The spiritual life is never twice the same.
Wendy M. Wright, from The Rising

Praise and worship is prayer. It is intimite; it is intercessory; and it is powerful.
Darlene Zschech, composer and praise leader