Both hope and pessimism are deeply contagious. And no one is more infectious than a leader.

When it comes to creation, I am open. However, I am extremely picky when it comes to who I create with.

We become like the five people we spend most of our time with; Oh, we've got to be picky, and you might have to fire a few people who don't belong in that inner circle because they can't help you be your best and further your purpose.

A man's growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends.

A chief event in life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us.

A true friend is somebody who can make us do what we can.

People would question anything having to do with God, but they wouldn't question their own questions. They would challenge the authority of a theologian, but they wouldn't challenge the authority of their buddy who claimed he had read a book that disproved the Bible.

I remember the time an older man asked me when I was young, "Do you know what you are doing now?" I thought it was some kind of trick question. Tell me," I said. You are building your memories," he replied, "so make them good ones.

I don't suppose that I know more about life than anyone of my age, but it seems to me that, in the capacity of an interlocutor, a book is more reliable than a friend or a beloved.

God has been faithful time and again to surround me with people that sharpen me and that make me better.

I could party in a cardboard box with people who are funny and don't care. For me, it's really about who I surround myself with, so I just try to always be with hilarious people.

the older and younger Blumhardt and their friends. There would have been something significant to learn—as later developments prove—from the books of Friedrich Zündel, for example.