In doing the research on my new book, I encountered many great quotes, what I like to call “Nuggets of Wisdom.” For the last blog of the year, I thought I would share some of my favorites with you.

“As for achievement and performance, he made all ‘A’s, but he flunked ordinary living.” – Walker Percy

“There is a huge gap between life as it should be and life as it is.” – Phillip Yancey

“If we neglect the small chunks of time, we generally don’t experience an immediate consequence. But, neglect is like a snowball. It has a cumulative effect.”  – Andy Stanley

“Few men have the natural strength to honor a friend’s success without envy.”  – Aeschylus

“You need to have many small, private victories to have significant public victories.”  – Stephen Covey

“The quality of gratitude is at the center of a healthy soul.”  – Gordon McDonald

“Self-discipline is the ability to make yourself do something you don’t necessarily want to do, to get a result you would really like to have.” – Author Unknown

“If you are not happy with your life and the way it is going, you can change it in two ways. Either improve the condition in which you live, or improve your inner spiritual state. The first is not always possible, but the second is.” – Leo Tolstoy

“It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth and wisdom.” – Aristotle

“If you are not doing anything with your life, it does not matter how long you live.” – John Maxwell

“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” – Stephen Covey

“The greatest tragedy in life is that most people spend their entire lives indefinitely preparing to live.” – Paul Tournia

“If people only knew how hard I worked to gain mastery, the end result wouldn’t seem too wonderful at all.” – Michelangelo

“Death is philosophy’s only problem.” – Albert Camus

“It you were stranded on a lonely road in Los Angeles in the dead of night with your head under the hood of your car, and suddenly you heard the sound of footsteps and turned to see 10 burly men walking toward you, would it or would it not make a difference to you or not if you knew they were coming from a men’s Bible study?”  – Dennis Prager

“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” – Henry Adams

“The dejection of a wasted life–“My despair came when I compared what I was, with what I had hoped to be.”  – Mark Twain

“God remains vivid and unfathomable but He does not interfere with the laws of self-destruction.” – James Ager

“The tragedy of modern men is not that he knows less and less about the meaning of his own life, but that it bothers him less and less.” – Vaclav Havel

“If you are going in the wrong direction, it is never going to become the right direction.” – CS Lewis

“All training is painful and frustrating as you seek to develop certain skills. However, over time, as these skills become second nature, they lead to greater joy.” – John Piper

“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” – John Wooden