"It is a steadfast truth that to live with purpose is to leave the world a little gentler than you found it — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"When ambition meets humility, we find that the true master is an eternal student."

"The darkest nights often reveal that the purest joy is found in giving without expectation."

"To master the mind is to understand that the echo of our deeds ripples through eternity."

"By nature's kindly disposition most questions which it is beyond a man's power to answer do not occur to him at all."

"He who reads widely and ponders deeply builds an unshakeable inner citadel. Such is the immutable nature of understanding."

"I don't like formal gardens. I like wild nature. It's just the wilderness instinct in me, I guess."

"All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind."