When you can carry five full dinner platters on your left arm, you should be able to vote, even if you're not eighteen.

You've got to love yourself with all your short comings, and you've got to love the world no matter how bad it gets.

And we learned that you don't have to be famous or rich or physically healthy to be a leader. You just have to try to be a true person. We learned that helping other people brings out the good in everybody.

...Difficult relationships come into our lives for a reason. No one would choose them, certainly. But if we let them, they can teach us how to be flexible with others and more forgiving.

We read to learn and to grow, to laugh, to be motivated, and to understand things we've never been exposed to. We read for strength to help us when we feel broken, discouraged or afraid. We read to find hope. We read because we're not just made up of skin and bones, and a deep need for chocolate, but we're also made up of words, words which describe our thoughts and what's hidden in our hearts.

...It isn't the problems along the way that make us or break us. It's how we learn to stand and face them that makes the difference.

...motherhood should be like driving a car -- you should have to pass a test before you can do it legally.