WHEN CHARACTER WAS KING

"We live in a world shaped in so many ways by his will and heart. As president, Ronald Reagan believed without question that tyranny is temporary, and the hope of freedom is universal and permanent; that our nation has unique goodness, and must remain uniquely strong; that God takes the side of justice, because all our rights are His own gifts..."

"And now, having gone on to other wars and seen our country in other struggles, having lived more years, known more life and seen more things, having come to understand what the meaning of those old days was...well, old resentments and rivalries fell away, disappeared, and what was left was: us. And the meaning of what we'd shared.

We'd been in a war, and we had a leader."

"[Ronald Reagan's mother] believed completely in what was known as, in the title of a popular book of the era, The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life. This was the secret: Jesus is with you, is aware of your life and fully engaged in it; God is in everything; He will let little befall you that will not be to the ultimate benefit of your soul. Sometimes He steps aside for trouble coming your way but only if it will refine you or prepare you to be with Him someday in heaven, where you'll know a happiness beyond all human understanding. So there is no cause then for sadness, only for joy. 'Do not be afraid.'"

— Peggy Noonan, When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan (2001)

Your religion is what you do with your solitude.

— Archbishop William Temple, 1881-1944

GREAT BY CHOICE

"We sense a dangerous disease infecting our modern culture and eroding hope: an increasingly prevalent view that greatness owes more to circumstance, even luck, than to action and discipline—that what happens to us matters more than what we do. In games of chance, like a lottery or roulette, this view seems plausible. But taken as an entire philosophy, applied more broadly to human endeavor, it's a deep debilitating life perspective, one that we can't imagine wanting to teach young people."

"They don't merely react; they create. They don't merely survive; they prevail. They don't merely succeed; they thrive. They build great enterprises that can endure. We do not believe that chaos, uncertainty, and instability are good; companies, leaders, organizations, and societies do not thrive on chaos. But they can thrive in chaos."

— Jim Collins, Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck—Why Some Thrive Despite Them All (2011)

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders

Let me walk upon the waters

Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander

And my faith will be made stronger

In the presence of my Savior

— Hillsong United, Zion (2013), Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)

"And in the odd chance
there are any Astronomy aficionados amongst you,
the North Star is... that one."

— Dr. King Schultz (to the slaves after freeing them), Django Unchained