“I’m not really concerned about boundaries. I just follow my conscience and my heart. Follow your heart. That’s what I do. Compassion is something I have a lot of, because I’ve been through a lot of pain in my life. Anybody who has suffered a lot of pain has a lot of compassion.”

“Life and love go on, let the music play.”

“All your life, you will be faced with a choice. You can choose love or hate…I choose love.”

“I don’t have Paul’s calling – I’m not out there being all things to all men to win them for Christ – but sometimes I can be a signpost. Sometimes I can sow a seed. And post-hole diggers and seed sowers are mighty important in the building of the Kingdom.”

“If you don’t get outside every day, even for a minute, you have not appreciated what God has done. It makes you grateful for our surroundings, and it starts your day differently.”

“No matter how much you’ve sinned, no matter how much you’ve stumbled, no matter how much you fall, no matter how far you’ve got from God, don’t give up. You can still be redeemed. As someone says, keep the faith.”

“Life is the question and life is the answer, and God is the reason and love is the way.”

“I am not a Christian artist, I am an artist who is a Christian.”

“I read novels but I also read the Bible. And study it, you know? And the more I learn, the more excited I get.”

“We’ll all be equal under the grass, and God’s got a heaven for country trash.”

“God’s the final judge for Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash too. That’s solely in the hands of God.”

“I have tried drugs and a little of everything else, and there iss nothing in the world more soul-satisfying than having the kingdom of God building inside you and growing.”

“I love songs about horses, railroads, land, Judgment Day, family, hard times, whiskey, courtship, marriage, adultery, separation, murder, war, prison, rambling, damnation, home, salvation, death, pride, humor, piety, rebellion, patriotism, larceny, determination, tragedy, rowdiness, heartbreak and love. And Mother. And God.”

“There is a spiritual side to me that goes real deep, but I confess right up front that I’m the biggest sinner of them all.”

“How well I have learned that there is no fence to sit on between heaven and hell. There is a deep, wide gulf, a chasm, and in that chasm is no place for any man.”

“The Master of Life been good to me. He has given me strength to face past illnesses, and victory in the face of defeat. He has given me life and joy where other saw oblivion. He Has given new purpose to live for, new services to render and old wounds to heal. Life and love go on, let the music play.”

“My arms are too short to box with God.”

“The gospel of Christ must always be an open door with a welcome sign for all.”

“Jesus will not fail me, I shall not be moved.”

“When God forgave me, I figured I’d better do it too.”

“Everybody was wearing rhinestones, all those sparkly clothes, and cowboy boots. I decided to wear a black shirt and pants and see if I could get by with it. I did and I’ve worn black clothes ever since.”

“I wear black because I’m comfortable in it. But then in the summertime when it’s hot I’m comfortable in light blue.”

“I was wearing black clothes almost from the beginning. I feel comfortable in black. I felt like black looked good onstage, that it was attractive, so I started wearing it all the time.”

“I wore black because I liked it. I still do, and wearing it still means something to me. It’s still my symbol of rebellion — against a stagnant status quo, against our hypocritical houses of God, against people whose minds are closed to others’ ideas.”

“I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down, Livin’ in the hopeless, hungry side of town, I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime, But is there because he’s a victim of the times. I wear the black for those who never read.”

“Until things are brighter, I’m the man in black.”

“Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the face.”

“We are never really happy until we try to brighten the lives of others.”

“Until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each others welfare, social justice can never be attained.”

“The world is not moved only by the mighty shoves of the heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.”

“As selfishness and complaint pervert and cloud the mind, so sex with its joy clears and sharpens the vision.”

“I rejoice to live in such a splendidly disturbing time!”

“One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.”

“When one reads hurriedly and nervously, having in mind written tests and examinations, one’s brain becomes encumbered with a lot of bric-a-brac for which there seems to be little use.”ins

“Great poetry needs no interpreter other than a responsive heart.”

“While they were saying it couldn’t be done, it was done.”

“There is no better way to thank God for your sight than by giving a helping hand to someone in the dark.”

“Trying to write is very much like trying to put a Chinese puzzle together. We have a pattern in mind which we wish to work out in words; but the words will not fit the spaces, or, if they do, they will not match the design.”

“The most beautiful world is always entered through imagination.”

“What I’m looking for is not out there, it is in me.”

“The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight but no vision.”

“We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world.”

“Relationships are like Rome — difficult to start out, incredible during the prosperity of the ‘golden age’, and unbearable during the fall. Then, a new kingdom will come along and the whole process will repeat itself until you come across a kingdom like Egypt… that thrives, and continues to flourish. This kingdom will become your best friend, your soul mate, and your love.”

“The true test of a character is to face hard conditions with the determination to make them better.”

“If we do not like our work, and do not try to get happiness out of it, we are a menace to our profession as well as to ourselves.”

“It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men, the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui.”

“True teaching cannot be learned from text-books any more than a surgeon can acquire his skill by reading about surgery.”

“We have prayed, we have coaxed, we have begged, for the vote, with the hope that men, out of chivalry, would bestow equal rights upon women and take them into partnership in the affairs of the state. We hoped that their common sense would triumph over prejudices and stupidity. We thought their boasted sense of justice would overcome the errors that so often fetter the human spirit; but we have always gone away empty handed. We shall beg no more.”

“I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light.”

“A person who is severely impaired never knows his hidden sources of strength until he is treated like a normal human being and encouraged to shape his own life.”