The human family is very diverse. Many conflicts in our world are caused when people are intolerant of the ways that others see the world. Learning tolerance is an important cornerstone to creating a better world.

—Robert Alan

Respect your fellow human beings, treat them fairly, disagree with them honestly, enjoy their friendship, explore your thoughts about one another candidly, work together for a common goal and help one another achieve it. No destructive lies. No ridiculous fears. No debilitating anger.

—Bill Bradley (b. 1943)

It’s not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can’t tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it myself.

—Joyce Maynard

If you feel that you have made mistakes, taken wrong turns, even failed miserably at this or that, you’re in good company. Many of God’s heroes in the Bible did too, but they learned from their mistakes. And God came to them, sitting in the midst of failed dreams or disappointed hopes, and gave them a new reason to live. That’s what He can do when we give up on our own plans and projects and decide to try His. He gives us goals to help us grow and move in the right direction, and then He helps us attain them. Give Him a chance. Let Him give you the good things He has for you.

—Nana Williams

A 113-year-old man, when asked the secret of his longevity, replied, “When it rains, I let it.”

Stress is the trash of modern life—we all generate it but if you don’t dispose of it properly, it will pile up and overtake your life.—Terri Guillemets

Power from God makes possible things that are beyond our human capabilities. This power can manifest itself in many ways: a miraculous healing; an easing of stress and emotional pressure; a change in circumstances that couldn’t be brought about through human effort; insight that transcends earthly wisdom, knowledge, and experience; the capacity to love sacrificially and unconditionally, as God loves us. From simple solutions to outright miracles, all come from a force outside of us. It is the power of God.

“It is increasingly clear to modern science that the universe was exquisitely fine-tuned to enable human life. We are somehow critically involved in [God’s] purpose.

Our job is to sense that purpose as best we can, love one another, and help Him get that job done.”

—Richard Smalley (1943–2005), awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of fullerenes, the third elemental form of carbon. Smalley is considered the Father of Nanotechnology.

He who has health has hope and he who has hope has everything.

—Arabian proverb

It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.

—Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948)

He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.

—Roy L. Smith

Christmas is not a date. It is a state of mind.

—Mary Ellen Chase

Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.

—Washington Irving

Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.

—Paul Boese (1668–1738)

Without forgiveness life is governed by an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation.

—Roberto Assagioli (1888–1974)

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.—John 3:16

Faith in Jesus Christ is the soul’s flight into the city of refuge.—Hugh Binning (1625–1654)