I am positive in my mind that the Lord has planned our destiny. Sometime we'll understand fully, and when we see back from the vantage point of the future, we shall be satisfied with many of the happenings of this life that are so difficult for us to comprehend.

Our span of life is brief, but is long enough for us to live well and honestly.

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.

Life is like a taxi. The meter just keeps ticking whether you are getting somewhere or just standing still.

To put the world in order we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must cultivate our personal life; and to cultivate our personal life, we must first set our hearts right.

Nice guys only appear to finish last. Actually, they are running a different race.

I find it fascinating that most people plan their vacations with better care than they plan their lives. Perhaps that is because escape is easier than change. If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they may have planned for you? Not much. The reason why most people face the future with apprehension instead of anticipation is because they don't have it well designed.

Nabokov calls every great novel a fairy tale, I said. Well, I would agree. First, let me remind you that fairy tales abound with frightening witches who eat children and wicked stepmothers who poison their beautiful stepdaughters and weak fathers who leave their children behind in forests. But the magic comes from the power of good, that force which tells us we need not give in to the limitations and restrictions imposed on us by McFate, as Nabakov calls it.

Every Fairy tale offers the potential to surpass present limits, so in a sense the fairy tale offers you freedoms that reality denies. In all great works of fiction, regardess of the grim reality they present, there is an affirmation of life against the transience of that life, an essential defiance. This affirmation lies in the way the author takes control of reality by retelling it in his own way, thus creating a new world.

Every great work of art, I would declare pompously, is a celebration, an act of insubordination against the betrayals, horrors and infideilities of life. The perfection and beauty of form rebels against the ugliness and shabbiness of the subject matter.

We are in a great school, and we should be diligent to learn, and continue to store up the knowledge of heaven and of earth, and read good books, although I cannot say that I would recommend the reading of all books, for it is not all books which are good. Read good books, and extract from them wisdom and understanding as much as you possibly can, aided by the Spirit of God.