I know these are not all Christian sources but there is great wisdom in these quotations nonetheless:
To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
-- Abraham Lincoln
Every saint has a past and every sinner a future.
-- Oscar Wilde
Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)
The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night.
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet (1807-1882)
The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists.
-- Japanese proverb
I believe that the first test of a truly great man is his humility. I do not mean by humility, doubt of his own powers. But really great men have a curious feeling that the greatness is not in them, but through them. And they see something divine in every other man and are endlessly, foolishly, incredibly merciful.
-- John Ruskin, author, art critic, and social reformer (1819-1900)
It is easy enough to be friendly to one's friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business.
-- Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)
The higher we soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.
-- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900)
We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.
-- Kahlil Gibran, mystic, poet, and artist (1883-1931)
The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.
-- Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)
If you believe the doctors, nothing is wholesome; if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent; if you believe the military, nothing is safe.
-- Lord Salisbury, British prime minister(1830-1903)
When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.
-- Leonardo da Vinci
There is no one, no matter how wise he is, who has not in his youth said things or done things that are so unpleasant to recall in later life that he would expunge them entirely from his memory if that were possible.
-- Marcel Proust, novelist (1871-1922)
The penalty that good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by men worse than themselves.
-- Plato, philosopher (427-347 BCE)
Talent is formed in solitude, character in the bustle of the world.
-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist.
-- Louis Nizer, lawyer (1902-1994)
It is always the secure who are humble.
-- G.K. Chesterton, essayist and novelist (1874-1936)
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
-- Aldous Huxley, novelist (1894-1963)
A person usually has two reasons for doing something: a good reason and the real reason.
-- Thomas Carlyle, historian and essayist (1795-1881)
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
-- George Santayana, philosopher (1863-1952)
Once upon a time a man whose ax was missing suspected his neighbor's son. The boy walked like a thief, looked like a thief, and spoke like a thief. But the man found his ax while digging in the valley, and the next time he saw his neighbor's son, the boy walked, looked and spoke like any other child.
-- Lao-tzu, philosopher (6th century BCE)
You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.
-- Anne Lamott, writer (1954- )
To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.
-- Abraham Lincoln, 16th US president (1809-1865)
It does not require many words to speak the truth.
-- Chief Joseph, native American leader (1840-1904)
Lying is done with words and also with silence.
-- Adrienne Rich, writer and teacher (1929- )
I love you, and because I love you, I would sooner have you hate me for telling you the truth than adore me for telling you lies.
-- Pietro Aretino, satirist and dramatist (1492-1556)
When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel, theology professor (1907-1972)
Beauty, unaccompanied by virtue, is as a flower without perfume.
-- French proverb
A diamond with a flaw is better than a common stone that is perfect.
-- Chinese proverb
True religion is the life we lead, not the creed we profess.
-- Louis Nizer, lawyer (1902-1994)
Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher.
-- Japanese proverb
Men of genius are often dull and inert in society, as a blazing meteor when it descends to earth, is only a stone.
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward. Maybe they have to be crazy. How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that's never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels? We make tools for these kinds of people. While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
-- Carl Sagan, astronomer and author (1934-1996)
