Teach me, and I will forget. Ask me, and I will remember. Involve me, and I will understand.

Chinese proverb

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotion, spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never tasted victory or defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt

We must remind ourselves yet once more that all Christian language about the future is a set of signposts pointing into a mist. Signposts don’t normally provide you with advance photographs of what you will find at the end of the road, but that does not mean they are not pointing in the right direction. They are telling you the truth, the particular sort of truth that can be told about the future.

N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope, p. 132

The line between good and evil is never simply between “us” and “them.” The line between good and evil runs through each one of us.

N. T. Wright, Evil and the Justice of God, p. 38

The point of the cross isn’t forgiveness. Forgiveness leads to something much bigger: restoration. God isn’t just interested in the covering over of our sins; God wants to make us into the people we were originally created to be. It is not just the removal of what’s being held against us; it is God pulling us into the people he originally had in mind when he made us.

Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis, p. 108

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

Winston Churchill

Our sins interrupt the reception and distribution of God’s gifts, bringing suffering and death in their train; but these effects are not God’s punishment of us, an interruption of God’s good favor, in response to our failings. They are merely the natural consequences of turning away from God’s bounty.

Kathryn Tanner, Jesus, Humanity, and the
Trinity: A Brief Systematic Theology, p. 86

Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.