If indeed the death of a child is part of a larger plan, you wonder if God ever considered a smaller plan.

To be happy, you must fancy that everything you have is a gift, and you the chosen, though you worked your tail off for every bit of it.

The strongest marriage is between two who seek the same God, the strongest friendship between two who flee the same devil.

Even if you think the Big Bang created the stars, don't you wonder who sent the flowers?

It's still possible to be a cockeyed optimist these days - you just have to be a little more cockeyed.

Alexandros of Antioch took a block of marble and chiseled away from it everything that was not his masterpiece, the Venus de Milo. If you will chisel away one fault from your character every day, you may discover - a) that you're actually a statue of Margaret Thatcher. b) that you're still just a block of marble. c) that there are pigeon droppings on your shoes. d) that you, too, are a hidden masterpiece.

Yes, I worry about the craziest things, but better me than someone less qualified.