Harry Emerson Fosdick

Watch what people are cynical about and one can often discover what they lack.

Christians are supposed not merely to endure change nor even to profit by it but to cause it.

No horse gets anywhere until he is harnessed. No steam or gas ever drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows great until it is focused dedicated disciplined.

The most extraordinary thing about the oyster is this. Irritation gets into his shell. He does not like them. But when he cannot get rid of them he uses the irritation to do the lovelist thing an oyster ever has the chance to do. If there are irritations in our lives today, there is only one prescription: make a pearl. It may have to be a pearl of patience, but_make a pearl.-In the Treasure Chest, ed. Charles L. Wallis