If someone decides they're not going to be happy, it's not your problem. You don't have to spend your time and energy trying to cheer up someone who has already decided to stay in a bad mood. Believe it or not, you can actually hurt people by playing into their self-pity.

Encouragement to others is something everyone can give. Somebody needs what you have to give. It may not be your money; it may be your time. It may be your listening ear. It may be your arms to encourage. It may be your smile to uplift. Who knows?

We need all races of men, and decent women, to stand up for what's right, drop anger, and live upright.

Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen.

The older I get, the more I meet people, the more convinced I am that we must only work on ourselves, to grow in grace. The only thing we can do about people is to love them.

Be kind to each other. It is better to commit faults with gentleness than to work miracles with unkindness.

To lend each other a hand when we're falling, perhaps that's the only work that matters in the end.

Thus the call to follow Christ always means a call to share the work of forgiving men their sins. Forgiveness is the Christlike suffering which it is the Christian's duty to bear.

Love has been called the most effective motivational force in all the world. When love is at work in us, it is remarkable how giving and forgiving, understanding and tolerant we can be.

Be a hard master to yourself - and be lenient to everybody else.

The more conscious I am of the work God has yet to do in me, the less critical I am about what he has yet to do in you

But our hearts are more elastic than we think, and the work of forgiveness and transformation and growth can do things you can't even imagine from where you're standing now.