Every 6 months or so I like to share quotes that I have encountered in my reading and research that have been meaningful to me. I call them “Nuggets of Wisdom.”

In the beauty of the world, we are to see God’s existence. In the brokenness of the world, we are to see God’s justice. As we do, we run back to the place where we see God’s mercy: the Cross.

– Tim Keller, founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church

You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.

– John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim’s Progress

You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.

– C.S. Lewis, British author and theologian

Some people learn from their mistakes, I on the other hand make it a practice to learn from the mistakes of others.

– Otto Von Bismarck, first Chancellor of the German Empire

I can’t give you a surefire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time.

-Herbert Bayard Swope, American editor and journalist, first recipient of the Pulitzer Prize

We have no government armed with powers capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

– John Adams, founding father and second President of the United States

The more you feed an appetite, the more it escalates in intensity: Appetites grow through indulgence – not neglect. Gluttons think just as much about food as starving people.

– C.S. Lewis, British author and theologian

Intelligent individuals learn from every thing and every one; average people, from their experiences. The stupid already have all the answers.

– Socrates, Greek philosopher one of the founders of Western philosophy

It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.

– Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway

Trials reveal your motivations in the faith; Am I serving God or do I want God to serve me?

– Tim Keller, founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church

This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.

– Thomas Jefferson, founding father and third President of the United States

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that you’ll do things differently.

– Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway

The Great difficulty spiritually is to concentrate on God, and it is His blessings that make it difficult. Troubles nearly always make us look to God; His blessings are apt to make us look elsewhere.

– Oswald Chambers, twentieth-century evangelist and teacher

Make wisdom your provision for the journey from youth to old age, for it is a more certain support than all other possessions.

– Bias of Priene, Greek poet, philosopher and statesman

Richard E Simmons III is the founder and Executive Director of The Center for Executive Leadership and a best-selling author.