Thank God, I never was cheerful. I come from the happy stock of the Mathers, who, as you remember, passed sweet mornings reflecting on the goodness of God and the damnation of infants.

My real dream is to have a whole, like, buy a whole piece of land. Imagine, like, a long driveway. Like, a cul de sac-type street, with maybe, like, seven houses. Me be right here. Have my mom be able to be right here. My brother over here. My girl’s grandmother and family right here. Friends over there. That’s my real dream.

When I was growing up, there was nobody in my family – not even my mother – who I could look to and be like, ‚I know you’ve never said anything homophobic.‘ So, you know, you worry about people in the business who you’ve heard talk that way. Some of my heroes coming up talk recklessly like that.

And when I was young, my family was perfectly nice. I write a lot about it, as you noticed. But it was rather limited. I think, I don’t think anyone in my family would really feel I’d done them an injustice by saying that. We didn’t see many people. There were many books. It was as if I wanted to get away from home.

I made a decision when my father passed away that I was going to be who God made me to be and not try to preach like my father.

In politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution.

The talent for being happy is appreciating and liking what you have, instead of what you don’t have.

You all look like happy campers to me. Happy campers you are, happy campers you have been, and, as far as I am concerned, happy campers you will always be.

I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil.

My mother’s love has always been a sustaining force for our family, and one of my greatest joys is seeing her integrity, her compassion, her intelligence reflected in my daughters.

And I come here as a daughter, raised on the South Side of Chicago – by a father who was a blue-collar city worker and a mother who stayed at home with my brother and me.

A family looks for ways to support and inspire one another.

Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.

The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.

Happy is he who still loves something he loved in the nursery: He has not been broken in two by time; he is not two men, but one, and he has saved not only his soul but his life.

It’s true; once you are a father, there’s no turning back. Your heart strings as well as your purse strings are never again the same.

The blame is his who chooses: God is blameless.

My grandfather was smart and had a whole lot of pride. He didn’t speak a terrible amount, but you could tell there was a ton on his mind – like a quiet acceptance of how life had turned out.

Risk is a part of God’s game, alike for men and nations.

Being a housewife and a mother is the biggest job in the world, but if it doesn’t interest you, don’t do it – I would have made a terrible mother.

Before I was born, my father told my mother, ‚If it’s a boy, he’s going to be a scientist.‘

Happiness: a good bank account, a good cook, and a good digestion.

It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done.

Terrorists are not following Islam. Killing people and blowing up people and dropping bombs in places and all this is not the way to spread the word of Islam. So people realize now that all Muslims are not terrorists.

Each life makes its own immitation of immortality.

Being brought up very religious, I have a fear of people that look to idol gods.

Actually, I didn’t start sweating until I had children.

I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.

Make no mistake about why these babies are here – they are here to replace us.

Religion is part of the human make-up. It’s also part of our cultural and intellectual history. Religion was our first attempt at literature, the texts, our first attempt at cosmology, making sense of where we are in the universe, our first attempt at health care, believing in faith healing, our first attempt at philosophy.

I’m happy that I have my family, and I’m happy that I had Virginia, where I grew up, to retreat to any time I felt overwhelmed. Whenever there were times when I felt like the rug was being pulled out from under me and I was floating in this crazy space, I would stop and go back to that neighborhood and realize nothing’s changed, really.

Only he can take great resolves who has indomitable faith in God and has fear of God.

My wife, a schoolteacher, very disciplined. If you think I’m tough, trust me, and wait till you see when the children are on the naughty step. It’s hilarious. So we decided that I’m going to work like a donkey and provide amazing support for the family.

Faith activates God – Fear activates the Enemy.

Men create gods after their own image, not only with regard to their form but with regard to their mode of life.

The rarest quality in an epitaph is truth.

If you gain, you gain all. If you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then, without hesitation, that He exists.

Faith never makes a confession.

What the Pope thinks of being gay does not matter to the world. It matters to the people who like the Pope and follow the Pope… It is not a reflection of all religious people.

God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board.

Darn the wheel of the world! Why must it continually turn over? Where is the reverse gear?

How is it possible for someone who believes that the world was created in six days to have a rational conversation with me, who doesn’t believe that, about other possibilities?

Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.

Time stays, we go.

Our object in the construction of the state is the greatest happiness of the whole, and not that of any one class.

I’ve lost both parents in the last two years, so you pick up on that stuff. That’s the most terrible thing about being an author – standing there at your mother’s funeral, but you don’t switch the author off. So your own innermost thoughts are grist for the mill.

He was an embittered atheist, the sort of atheist who does not so much disbelieve in God as personally dislike Him.

Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth.

The longer I live, the more I feel that true repose consists in ‚renouncing‘ one’s own self, by which I mean making up one’s mind to admit that there is no importance whatever in being ‚happy‘ or ‚unhappy‘ in the usual meaning of the words.

God to me is love.

I think that, whatever happens, I’m just happy I’ve written those songs and I’ve made an album. That’s really big for me, and I’m proud of that.

Surely God would not have created such a being as man, with an ability to grasp the infinite, to exist only for a day! No, no, man was made for immortality.

The real problem is not why some pious, humble, believing people suffer, but why some do not.

Family home evening is more for the purpose of teaching values and gospel principles, displaying talents and enjoying different kinds of family fun and activities.

Most of us have hoped and prayed for something to happen a certain way, but it didn’t. And when this happened, we had a choice to make: to react with offense toward God or to trust Him anyway.

Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.

As for our great King, when we venture into His presence, let us have a purpose there. Let us beware of playing at praying; it is insolence toward God.

Is solace anywhere more comforting than that in the arms of a sister.

The faith that stands on authority is not faith.

Union of religious sentiments begets a surprising confidence.

By respect for life we become religious in a way that is elementary, profound and alive.