"If there was one truth Evie had learned in her short life, it was that forgiveness was easier to seek than permission. She didn’t plan to ask for either one."

“Life is but a fine wine to be sipped and favored.”

“A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.”

“nothing happens in August - except when something really happens in August. World War I began in August, Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait began in August, al Qaida was preparing to bring down the World Trade Center in August. August, in other words, is the time when all of us should prepare our backup plans, chart our reversals of course, [and] think through possible paradigm changes.”

“If we want children to flourish, to become truly empowered, then let us allow them to love the earth before we ask them to save it. Perhaps this is what Thoreau had in mind when he said, “the more slowly trees grow at first, the sounder they are at the core, and I think the same is true of human beings.”

Source : "Fighting Climate Change Through ‘Nature Connectedness’" by Nancy Shulins, www.huffingtonpost.com. April 25, 2014.

“Design has allowed us to stand out; to look different and show that difference boldy.”

“Don't be a fool, there is no such thing as just a girl.”

Source : Elissa Schappell (2012). “Blueprints for Building Better Girls: Fiction”, p.280, Simon and Schuster

“The processes of secularization that followed in the wake of the Reformation continue to work themselves out in complicated ways, not only in Europe but also in North America. To make a very long and complex story short, the success of the Reformation combined with the persistence and renewal of Roman Catholicism in the 16th and 17th centuries made Christianity into an enduring, disruptive problem in new ways, layered on top of problems that already affected late medieval Christianity.”

“I think leadership is service and there is power in that giving: to help people, to inspire and motivate them to reach their fullest potential.”