The swift wind of compromise is a lot more devastating than the sudden jolt of misfortune.

Relatively mild gusts of wind blow some trees down. Graceful palm trees, for example, are lovely to look at but will not stand up in a heavy wind because they are not well anchored.

I will not be distracted by noise, chatter, or setbacks. Patience, commitment, grace, and purpose will guide me.

You're going to get hurt yourself, and badly, if you take everything so hard.

you've got to learn to walk through a pigpen and not get dirty.

The part of us that has to be burned away is something like the deadwood on the bush; it has to go, to be burned in the terrible fire of reality, until there is nothing left but . . . what we are meant to be.

Only on love's terrible other side is found the place where lion and lamb abide. 'What's that? he asked sharply. something of Mado's. Marguerite Dominique de la Valeur Renier. She drew out the syllables lovingly. My husband's grandmother. Your great-great-grandmother. Love's terrible other side. The other side of the sun. You can't go around it, Theron. You have to go through it.

Meg stamped, loudly and angrily, against the hard, cold surface of the rock.

In this fateful hour, it was herself she placed between us and the powers of darkness.

I don't even call it violence when it's in self defense; I call it intelligence.

Use the dirt life throws at you to plant the seeds of your success.

In the wrong environment your weakness is evident, but in the right environment, you function from a place of strength.