Sunshine beyond the shadows Dawning beyond the night; Springtime beyond the winter Colour and warmth and light. Gladness beyond the sorrow laughter beyond the tears… Hope like a star at evening Glowing beyond the fears.

I’ve got a heap of troubles, and I’ve got to work them out. But I look around and see there’s troubles, all about. And when I see my troubles, I just look up and grin, and count all the troubles that I aim not in.

What is this power that elevates our spirits until we reach the mountain top, smiling and glorying?

A promise made is a debt unpaid.

Her soul was a polished mirror reflecting all the loveliness of the fields, and her heart was like the wide valleys.

There is no secret in the mystery of life stronger than that attachment which converts the silence of a virgin’s spirit into a perpetual awareness that makes a person forget the past, for it kindles fiercely in the heart the sweet and overwhelming hope of the coming future.

No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.

I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miser-able, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to ‘be alive’ is a grand thing.

Don’t just wish for something. Prepare to receive it now.

The idea that He Would take his attention away from the universe in order to give me a bicycle with three speeds is just so unlikely I can’t go along with it.