Robert Louis Stevenson:

There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.

Janis Ian:

Someone else gave words to my feelings, made me aware that out of such torment could come great art.

Society's Child, p. 105-106

Frank Schaeffer:

What does it say about the nature of faith in God that when a believer -- say, a former evangelical/fundamentalist like me -- questions his or her faith or changes it, there are otherwise seemingly sane people so threatened that they take the time to call down God's judgment on the questioner?

Patience With God, p. 16

Rita Mae Brown:

Language is music, and few languages are capable of such wide cadence as our own.

Rita Will, p. 284

Gertrude Stein:

Anything one does every day is important and imposing and anywhere one lives is interesting and beautiful.

Anne Lamott:

Artists channel it, corral it, make it visible to the rest of us.  The best works of art are like semaphores of our experience, signaling what we didn't know was true but do now.

Help, Thanks, Wow, p. 82

Rachel Held Evans:

Why would God fashion a person in her mother's womb, number the hairs on her head, and then leave her without any hope of salvation?  Can salvation be boiled down to luck of the draw?  How is that just?  Shouldn't God be more loving and compassionate than I?

"The Scandal of the Evangelical Heart"

Ellen DeGeneres:

Find out who you are and figure out what you believe in.  Even if it's different from what your neighbors believe in and different from what your parents believe in.  Stay true to yourself.  Have your own opinion.  Don't worry about what people say about you or think about you.  Let the naysayers nay.  They will eventually grow tired of naying.

Seriously...I'm Kidding, p. 240

Thomas Merton:

Finally I am coming to the conclusion that my highest ambition is to be what I already am.  That I will never fulfill my obligation to surpass myself unless I first accept myself, and if I accept myself fully in the right way, I will already have surpassed myself.

Frank Schaeffer:

You can take the evangelical/fundamentalist out of the evangelical/fundamentalist world, but the harder habit to break -- speaking for myself -- is the evangelical/fundamentalist addiction to silver-bullet, instant, born-again sorts of "solutions."

Patience With God, p. 106

Rita Mae Brown:

Anyone can write one book.  Almost anyone.  Fewer people can write a novel, as fiction is difficult.  The true test is writing the second and then the third work of fiction.  By the time you fire off that third one, you're either a writer or you're not.  If you don't know it, everyone around you does.  A fiction writer lives or dies on the page.

Rita Will, p. 288

Virginia Woolf:

My mind works in idleness.  To do nothing is often my most profitable way.

Anne Lamott:

Art makes it hard to ignore truth, that Life explodes and blooms, consumes, rots and radiates and slithers; that eternity really is in a blade of grass.

Help, Thanks, Wow, p. 82-83

Albert Schweitzer:

The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.

Ellen DeGeneres:

If there is any message I want you to take from this book, it is that befriending a parrot can be both frustrating and infinitely rewarding.  And if there is another message I want you to take from this book, it's that you can be happy.  There is so much bad news in the world right now and sometimes it's hard to see the positive side of things, but it is possible and there are things you can do to be happy.

Seriously...I'm Kidding, p. 169

Patti Smith:

A writer or any artist can’t expect to be embraced by the people. I’ve done records where it seemed like no one listened to them. You write poetry books that maybe 50 people read. And you just keep doing your work because you have to, because it’s your calling.

Frank Schaeffer:

Concentrating on  belief rather than on character leads some people -- be they atheist or religious -- to get stuck on the training rules and miss the whole point of "boot camp."  They never get their "eagle, globe, and anchor" emblem and graduate.  It's as if there were platoons of recruits stuck on Paris Island who had never graduated and who, now as crazy old men, are still marching around yelling cadence, having mistaken the training phase for being Marines.  Rifle drill and doing a perfect port arms are seen by this lost platoon of fundamentalist recruits as the end point, not a step along the road.

Patience With God, p. 181

Rita Mae Brown:

We still haven't reached the point where we are sure we like self-confidence in a woman.  We'll accept violent self-centeredness, especially in beauty queens and movie stars; the more superficial they are the more we accept it.  But a truly self-confident woman, one who looks you straight in the eye and doesn't lower her eyes in a nonverbal (and cloying) nod to your superiority, if you are male, is unnerving.

Rita Will, p. 279

Anne Lamott:

What can we say beyond Wow, in the presence of glorious art, in music so magnificent that it can't have originated solely on this side of things?  Wonder takes our breath away, and makes room for new breath.  That's why they call it breathtaking.

Help, Thanks, Wow, p. 81

Margaret Thatcher:

If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.

Margaret Mead:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.  Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

Ellen DeGeneres:

We're all different people and we're allowed to be different from one another.  If someone ever says you're weird, say thank you.  And then curtsy.  No, don't curtsy.  That might be too weird.  Bow.  And tip your imaginary hat.  That'll show them.

Seriously...I'm Kidding, p. 57

Goethe:

He who is and remains true to himself and to others has the most attractive quality of the greatest talent.

Frank Schaeffer:

Paradoxes should not be resolved but celebrated.

Patience With God, p. 163

Rita Mae Brown:

I've learned I can't change anyone.  I can't overcome homophobia.  I can't overcome misunderstandings if the other people aren't willing to learn and reach out, too.  I can only forgive, hope for the best and keep going.

Rita Will, p. 420

Anne Lamott:

Poetry is the official palace language of Wow.

Help, Thanks, Wow, p. 79

Joseph Addison:

The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.

Thomas à Kempis:

A man is not only happy but wise also, if he is trying, during his lifetime, to be the sort of man he wants to be found at his death.

Ellen DeGeneres:

I personally like being unique.  I like being my own person with my own style and my own opinions and my own toothbrush.  I think it's so much better to stand out in some way and to set yourself apart from the masses.  It would be so boring to look out into the world and see hundreds of people who look and think exactly like me.  If I wanted that, I could just sit in front of a mirror and admire my own reflection all day.  That's already how I spend my mornings.  I don't need to spend all of my time doing that.

Seriously...I'm Kidding, p. 56

Frank Schaeffer:

But as (Charles) Darwin discovered, claims of absolute truth, without a nod to inconsistency, are made to be abandoned.

Patience With God, p. 153