Don’t ever quit pretending.

Without you there would be no me. I am everything reflected in your eyes. I am everything approved by your smile. I am everything born of your guidance. I am me only because of you.

Okay, let’s put this another way―if what you’re about to say wouldn’t look good permanently engraved on your tombstone, bite your tongue.

Sometimes giving up feels like the easiest thing to do. But then the easiest thing has never produced more than a garden full of weeds.

I’ll always want to be your friend, Annabelle. Do you want to be mine?”My head nodded like mad, ecstatic, all on its own. I disappeared among the shadows again and watched my new friend until...

I don’t believe that the course of anyone’s lifetime has ever been as unerring as that of the rising and setting sun, but I know many lives that have been just as inspiring.

I want you.Eena thought the expression on his face—the look in his weary blue eyes—appeared strangely sincere. But there was one thing she had learned from all this: never trust a master of deceit.

Disappointment is really just a term for our refusal to look on the bright side.

You are the one star I wish upon nightly, praying your glory will fall from the heavens and land in my undeserving arms.

Act like you care. Pray like you care. Speak, smile, reach out, and live like you care. The point is to make sure those in your life know beyond doubt that you do care.

We try so hard to teach our children the right things―good from bad, choices and consequences―when in reality most lessons are learned through observation and experience. Perhaps we’d be better off teaching our youth to...

Life is mental; it’s all about attitude. The majority of it is lived in your head.

I don’t understand why when I wish for happiness it inevitably rains. However, I do tend to find myself grateful for sunlight once the storm ceases.

I’ve figured out why they call it a trial. Because you try all you can to pull through it. 

Obsessing over something that has jarred your world is called coping.

Learn to look up now and then, just in case a piano is falling from overhead.

Be warned: A person content to sit with you and criticize others will speak critically of you out of earshot.

Most people don’t accept that they are an influence either improving or damaging others.

You were formed inside a borrowed womb—a nourishing safe haven for months—then delivered through painful effort and sacrifice by a woman willing to give you the precious gift of life. That truth alone deserves your...

Monsters excite us in this way or that.They make our pulse thrum and steal lives from the cat!They’re frightening creatures, one peek and you’ll see.Yet life without monsters, how dull it would be.Your tense, nervous...

Not into older guys, huh?” asked Adrian once we were alone.”You’re imagining things,” I said. “Clearly, my stunning beauty has clouded your mind.

I made a sorry face in response to such strong insistence, but I couldn’t believe him. Fantasies were exactly that..…..fantasies. Whimsy. Wishes. Mere castles in the sky without foundation or substance. Dreams didn’t come true....

You’re right; you can’t make someone be happy. But I don’t see the harm in trying.

I learn by doing….the same thing over and over and over again countless times.

Win or lose, good or bad, the experience will change you.

To have a caring and committed heart toward someone—a heart so firm in its devotion as to sooner stop beating than neglect the object of its desire despite the person’s state of health, appearance, reputation,...

To encourage me is to believe in me, which gives me the power to defeat dragons.

Happiness isn’t complicated. It is a humble state of gratitude for simple pleasures, tender mercies, recognized blessings, and inherent beauty.

No one is born a sprinter. We all learn to push ourselves up from the floor and then balance before taking that first, wobbly step. It is an individual choice where to go from there.

Is anything truly impossible? Or is it that the path to our goals appears too unclear to follow? It seems to me that if you seek hard enough, pray hard enough, you usually stumble across...

Don’t give up.I know you’ve made a thousand attempts to reach your goal, but look at it this way: after repeatedly banging your head against the wall, you ought to be numb enough break through...

Evil exists in this world because it has its place. For had you never sat blindly through the darkness of night, your eyes wouldn’t turn toward the sunrise to appreciate its warmth and illumination.

If you couldn’t sense heat, you’d not be alive. And if that heat never grew uncomfortable, you would never move. And if you were stagnant—unchallenged by unpredictable flares—you would never grow capable of shielding yourself...

Life is a valuable and unique opportunityto discover who you are.But it seems as soon as you nearanswering that age-old question,something unexpected always happensto alter your course.And who it is you thought you weresuddenly changes.Then...

Take it one step at a time—inarguably wise advice. And yet we all take a running leap, hoping the wind will catch us on its wings and lift us clear to the top of the...

Let them hear your voice so rarely that a simply-uttered word creates a hush of expectancy in the room.

Perhaps, if you weren’t so busy regarding my shortcomings, you’d find that I do possess redeeming qualities, discreet as they may be. I notice when the sky is blue. I smile down at children. I...

Sail through the good days, and on bad days pick a spot of blue sky to steer toward.

Haunt an old house.Ask for a treat.Laugh like a witch.Lick something sweet.Offer a trick.Wander a maze.Echo a boo.Exclaim the phrase—Normal’s unnatural on Halloween!

Even if the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, keep to your own side; it’s where you belong. There you can plant your own grass and tend to it.

It’s a waste of time worrying about something that worry won’t fix; it’s about as useful as trying to feed your pet rock.

That’s me—a storm cloud.

Every once in a while God allows you to stub your toe as a kind reminder to be grateful for the miraculous body attached to it.

What a grim feeling it is to come across a written line so exceptionally inspiring that your first reaction is, ‘Criminy, why didn’t I ever think to write that!’

What is the spirit of Christmas, you ask? Let me give you the answer in a true story…On a cold day in December, feeling especially warm in my heart for no other reason than it...

What were good and evil, really, but stupid categories? Stupid categoriesthat restricted people and punished or rewarded them based on how they responded to their own natures, natures they really didn’t have any way to...

Don’t ever give up. Don’t ever give in. Don’t ever stop trying. Don’t ever sell out. And if you find yourself succumbing to one of the above for a brief moment, pick yourself up, brush...

I stumble and fall.I weep and struggle to rise.My mom feels it all.

Relax; the world’s not watching that closely. It’s too busy contemplating itself in the mirror.

There are few things better than losing yourself in a book. And if you’re lucky enough to have that adventure continue in a series, it’s like chocolate ganache on the icing on the cake.