Malcolm Forbes:

Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.

John Shelby Spong:

Religion almost inevitably tries to take our anxiety away from us by claiming that which religion can never deliver -- absolute certainty.

Martin Luther King Jr.:

The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But...the good Samaritan reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"

John Shore:

The extent to which we fail to take personally the persecution of others is the extent to which we fail as Christians.

Hugh MacLeod:

Part of being creative is learning how to protect your freedom. That includes freedom from avarice.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 124

Randy Pausch:

The person who failed often knows how to avoid future failures.

The Last Lecture, p. 149

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

What artists learn from other artists is not so much history or technique (although we learn tons of that too); what we really gain from the artmaking of others is courage-by-association.

Art & Fear, p. 89-90

Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

Strong and weak, wise and foolish, gifted or ungifted, pious or impious, the diverse individuals in the community are no longer incentives for talking and judging and condemning, and thus excuses for self-justification. They are rather cause for rejoicing in one another and serving one another.

Life Together

St. Augustine:

In matters that are so obscure and far beyond our vision, we find in Holy Scripture passages which can be interpreted in very different ways without prejudice to the faith we have received. In such cases, we should not rush in headlong and so firmly take our stand on one side that, if further progress in the search for truth justly undermines this position, we too fall with it.

Martin Luther King Jr.:

Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothings pains some people more than having to think.

Hugh MacLeod:

Remain frugal. The less you can live on, the more chance your idea will succeed. This is true even after you've "made it."

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 123

Timothy Kincaid:

All we can do is try and live our lives with dignity, decency, and self-worth, to spread the truth about sexuality as it is further developed, and to be consistently compassionate to those who are caught in a conundrum.

"The Great Conundrum"

Randy Pausch:

When we're connected to others, we become better people.

The Last Lecture, p. 176

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

The security of a monthly paycheck mixes poorly with the risk-taking of artistic inquiry.

Art & Fear, p. 88

Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

I can never know beforehand how God's image should appear in others. That image always manifests a completely new and unique form that come solely from God's free and sovereign creation. To me the sight may seem strange, even ungodly. But God creates every man in the likeness of His Son, the Crucified. After all, even that image certainly looked strange and ungodly to me before I grasped it.

Life Together

Tony Campolo:

To reach out to the LGBT communities and join them in their cry for justice, and to champion their efforts for inclusion in our churches, is to simply imitate Christ. Being followers of Jesus requires this.

Guest post on LoveIsAnOrientation.com

Martin Luther King Jr.:

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.

Hugh MacLeod:

Anyone can be an idealist. Anyone can be a cynic. The hard part lies somewhere in the middle -- that is, being human.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 117

Henri Nouwen:

For as long as you can remember, you have been a pleaser, depending on others to give you an identity. You need not look at this only in a negative way. You wanted to give your heart to others, and you did so quickly and easily. But now you are being asked to let go of all these self-made props and trust that God is enough for you. You must stop being a pleaser and reclaim your identity as a free self.