Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.

Leadership is of the spirit, compounded of personality and vision.

The one thing I've learned, getting out to all those foreign and domestic locales, is that people in every country of the 'civilized' world wish - either secretly or openly - that they had the expressiveness, the flair, the I'm-so-glad-to-be-me spirit that black folks have made a part of American life.

We placed the wreaths upon the splendid granite sarcophagus, and at its feet, and felt that only the earthly robe we loved so much was there. The pure, tender, loving spirit which loved us so tenderly, is above us - loving us, praying for us, and free from all suffering and woe - yes, that is a comfort, and that first birthday in another world must have been a far brighter one than any in this poor world below!

I guess if there is a big spiritual experience in my life, it is me becoming a mother.

A strangely reflective even melancholy day. Is that because unlike our cousins in the northern hemisphere Easter is not associated with the energy and vitality of spring but with the more subdued spirit of autumn?

I put the copy of 'A Christmas Carol' that my grandfather had first read to me 60 years ago on my desk and I began to write. The result for better or for worse is the 'Christmas Spirits.' I plan to read it to my grandson.

Next to a circus there ain't nothing that packs up and tears out faster than the Christmas spirit.

Now the essence the very spirit of Christmas is that we first make believe a thing is so and lo it presently turns out to be so.

That's the true spirit of Christmas people being helped by people other than me.

Close your bodily eye that you may see your picture first with the eye of the spirit. Then bring to light what you have seen in the darkness that its effect may work back from without to within.

The contemporary form of true greatness lies in a civilization founded on the spirituality of work.

We are free but not to be evil not to be indifferent to human suffering not to profit from the people from the work created and sustained through their spirit of political association while refusing to contribute to the political state that we profit from.

Anyone's life truly lived consists of work sunshine exercise soap plenty of fresh air and a happy contented spirit.

I just like to have words that describe things correctly. Now to me 'black feminist' does not do that. I need a word that is organic that really comes out of the culture that really expresses the spirit that we see in black women. And it's just... womanish.

Hatred is corrosive of a person's wisdom and conscience the mentality of enmity can poison a nation's spirit instigate brutal life and death struggles destroy a society's tolerance and humanity and block a nation's progress to freedom and democracy.

We don't pray for the land. We pray for the humans all humans... starting with the president Mohammed Morsi and all officials and for God to give everyone wisdom and responsibility to manage the affairs of this country and its people in true Egyptian spirit.

Nobility of spirit has more to do with simplicity than ostentation wisdom rather than wealth commitment rather than ambition.

In my definition of consciousness consciousness is the same thing as life. What wisdom traditions also call spirit.

Wisdom is that apprehension of heavenly things to which the spirit rises through love.

Earthly wisdom is doing what comes naturally. Godly wisdom is doing what the Holy Spirit compels us to do.

It gave me a lot of pleasure and pride that 90 percent of the crew for 'Monsoon Wedding ' and most of my film are women. We get the work done you know much lesser play of ego... And I really believe in harmony I believe in working in a spirit of egolessness and that the film is bigger than all of us.

Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It's the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else's pain is as meaningful as your own.

I make one pledge above all others - to seek and speak the truth with all the resources of mind and spirit I command.