Richard Paul Evans Quotes & Sayings

The only way to remove pain from death is to remove love from life. — Richard Paul Evans

Take it out on whoever is close. Even people we love. Taylor's afraid for Michael and so she's upset. And since he isn't here, she took it out on you. — Richard Paul Evans

In college I took a social psychology course, something I thought useful for a career in advertising. Psychologists tested the story of the Good Samaritan. What they learned gives us reason to pause. The greatest determinant of who stopped to help the stranger in need was not compassion, morality, or religious creed. It was those who had the time. Makes me wonder if I have time to do good. Apparently, Angel does. — Richard Paul Evans

Trauma has a way of indelibly linking the incidentals to the profound. — Richard Paul Evans

I am a believer in angels, though not the picture-book kind with wings and harps. Such angelic accoutrements seem as nonsensical to me as devils sporting horns and carrying pitchforks. To me, angel wings are merely symbolic of their role as divine messengers. — Richard Paul Evans

Sometimes, when tragedy strikes, people give up hope that they can expect anything more from life, when the real quest is finding out what life expects from them. — Richard Paul Evans

They say love is blind, but it's not. Infatuation is blind. Emotional neediness is blind. Love sees the fault - it just sees beyond it as well. — Richard Paul Evans

Snow is falling outside and all is peaceful and still. In such moments it is possible to believe that the world could still be good. — Richard Paul Evans

To deny our pasts is to burn the bridge we must cross to self-understanding. Alan Christoffersen's diary — Richard Paul Evans

You don't have to be smart to get good grades, you just have to do what they tell you — Richard Paul Evans

Rarely do we invest the time to open the book of another's life. When we do, we are usually surprised to find its cover so misleading and its reviews so flawed. — Richard Paul Evans

The truest grace is not to forgive, but to have never found fault. — Richard Paul Evans

Those willing to trade freedom for certainty are certain to find the cure worse than the ailment. — Richard Paul Evans

I have Tourettes syndrome. — Richard Paul Evans

Humans need to belong. Humans have always needed tribes. Today we find tribes in family or clubs or religion. What happens when we fall out of them? I suppose, in prehistoric times, it was fatal to be cast out of a tribe, to be exiled or excommunicated from the group, away from the people we love and need. Exile from the tribe is a form of execution. — Richard Paul Evans

We all arrive on Earth with a round-trip ticket. — Richard Paul Evans

Those with the softest hearts build the hardest shells. — Richard Paul Evans

We carry around in our heads these pictures of what our lives are supposed to look like, painted by the brush of out intentions. It's the great, deep secret of humanity that in the end none of our lives look the way we thought they would. As much as we wish to believe otherwise, most of life is a reaction to circumstances. — Richard Paul Evans

People talk of life's storms as if they are universal experiences. But they're not. Some people hear thunder while others touch lightning. — Richard Paul Evans

The law of centrifugal force seems to be as true for the human condition as it is for the Newtonian mechanics. The faster our lives spin, the more things tend to fly apart. — Richard Paul Evans

I work at a retirement home. I'm a CNA."
"What's that?"
"It stands for Certified Nursing Assistant."
"That sounds important," I said.
She laughed. "If changing old people's diapers is important."
I thought for a moment, then said, "It is for the old people. — Richard Paul Evans

Suffering ceases to be suffering when we form a clear picture of it. — Richard Paul Evans

Life is a house of cards, balanced on a tetter-totter,
precariously perched on a roller coaster.
The only thing that should surprise us about our surprises is that we are surprised by them.
Beth Cardall's Diary — Richard Paul Evans

Helping others carries its own rewards, the first of which is a return to humanity. — Richard Paul Evans

It's been my experience that those with the toughest shells have the softest hearts — Richard Paul Evans

Is that it?" Jack asked. "No. That is the Xing zheng yuan Hui an Xun fang Shu." "I was just going to say that," Tessa said. — Richard Paul Evans

Let me put it this way. Love is like learning how to dance. When you first hear the music, you're full of passion and you don't care who's watching because you just want to fling yourself around like an idiot. It's clumsy and it's full of missteps and falls and sometimes you're not even dancing to the same tune, but you don't notice because you're so carried away by the music.
But then the music begins to wane, and you start stepping on each other's toes. Some think that's the truth of the relationship and run. But the truth is, that's where true love begins. That's when you start to learn each other's rhythm and how to move together. And if you stick with it long enough, you might even learn to be graceful. — Richard Paul Evans

To not extend forgiveness is to burn the bridge that we ourselves must cross. — Richard Paul Evans

It is oftentimes a blessing to not know our limitations.
It's the only way to accomplish the impossible. — Richard Paul Evans

Your a skid-mark on the underwear of humanity. -Ostin Liss — Richard Paul Evans

I don't believe society has ever grown more tolerant. It just changes targets. — Richard Paul Evans

Chocolate is God's apology for brocolli — Richard Paul Evans

Unfortunately, large cities don't have a monopoly on loneliness. It can be found in small towns as well. Loneliness can be found everywhere there are people. — Richard Paul Evans

We stone our prophets, then build monuments to them after they're gone. — Richard Paul Evans

I once read that the secret to happiness is having something to do, something to look forward to, and someone to love. — Richard Paul Evans

In your hurry to keep Christmas, you have forgotten Christmas. The truest gift of Christmas is the gift of self. — Richard Paul Evans

Maybe, if we just accepted our deaths, we might finally start to live. — Richard Paul Evans

I have found that the people who shout their opinion the loudest are usually the ones most insecure in their position.
I don't think it is as much a human foible as it is a human curse that we cannot understand the beauty of a thing until it is gone.
It's not that there wasn't anything to say. It's that there was too much and words were poor substitutes for our feelings.
But Korczak's greatest legacy is not a public one, the massive stone mountain that he conquered, but the mountain he first conquered in himself-a mountain that he climbed alone-in this we can all empathize. (about the sculptor of Crazy Horse) — Richard Paul Evans

Books are the most tolerant of friends. — Richard Paul Evans

Sometimes it's the fight that makes a thing worth having — Richard Paul Evans

Sometimes life is like that ... Things that seem bad at the time are really blessings. — Richard Paul Evans

Knowing your self-worth isn't something others can validate. You either believe it or you don't. — Richard Paul Evans

He's like an elephant with anger issues. — Richard Paul Evans

No one marries expecting it to fail. And even when it's good, who knows how long it's going to last? — Richard Paul Evans

Roses can grow in slums just as weeds can grow around mansions. — Richard Paul Evans

The Golden Rule is a two-edged sword. If some of us treated others as we treat ourselves, we would be jailed. — Richard Paul Evans

My mother always said that if you do the right thing, the universe comes to your aid, — Richard Paul Evans

The shackles of belief, when reinforced by fear, are difficult to break free from and rarely done. — Richard Paul Evans

Love is full of pain and mistakes. That's what makes it interesting and that's why we explore relationships in literature. That whole 'love is never having to say you're sorry' crap is just that, crap. Love is learning how to say you're sorry. — Richard Paul Evans

What the masses don't realize is that they're looking for a shepherd. Those who don't think they can be influenced or call themselves 'independent thinkers' are usually the biggest conformists of all - and the easiest to turn. Why do you think cults prey on college students? Easy picking. — Richard Paul Evans

But more than brave, you have love. And love is brave. — Richard Paul Evans

Hard things don't always make life harder. It takes something hard to sharpen steel. — Richard Paul Evans

I have come to believe that the defining moments of most lives are not acts of courage or greatness, rather they are the simple acts: expressions of virtue or vice that are tossed carelessly like seeds from a farmer's hand, leaving their fruits to be revealed at a future date. — Richard Paul Evans

To truly live is more than taking the next breath
it's to hope and dream and love. — Richard Paul Evans

To forgive is to unlock the cage of another's folly to set ourselves free. — Richard Paul Evans

One need not fight every battle, or die in the struggle, to be a hero. — Richard Paul Evans

... Or he could choose life. At that pivotal moment, it occurred to him that with all his
schooling in theology he had, perhaps, missed the entire point of his studies, the very
crux of the gospel he had professed to believe. That the measure of a person's heart, the
barometer of good or evil, was nothing more than the extent of their willingness to
choose life over death. That the path of God was, simply, the path of life, abundant and
eternal. And this is where he failed, for to choose life is to choose sorrow as well as joy,
pain as well as pleasure. When Hunter had buried Rachel, he buried along with her his
heart, lest it might heal and feel and grow again. And in so doing he had chosen more
than death, he had chosen damnation itself, for damnation is nothing more than to stop
a thing in its eternal progression. In that first flight from West Chester he had run not
only from the horror and pain of death but from life itself.
— Richard Paul Evans

We can spend our days bemoaning our losses, or we can grow from them. Ultimately the choice is ours. We can be victims of circumstance or masters of our own fate, but make no mistake, we cannot be both.
The Walk - Epilogue Page 288 — Richard Paul Evans

We climb mountains because the valleys are full of cemeteries. The secret of survival is to climb, even in the dark, even when the climb seems pointless. The climb, not the summit, is the thing. And the great don't just climb mountains, they carve them as they go. Korczak — Richard Paul Evans

It's almost as difficult to believe that someone with so many trials could harbor such hope, as that there are those with so much advantage who harbor such hopelessness. — Richard Paul Evans

It is that to which we cling that drags us to the bottom of the abyss. There is real power at having nothing to lose. — Richard Paul Evans

Sometimes its not the strength but gentleness that cracks the hardest shells. — Richard Paul Evans

The measure of life is revealed in the quality of our relationships: with God, our families, our fellow men. - A Perfect Day by Richard Paul Evans — Richard Paul Evans

Did you know that rats can't vomit?" "Okay, enough. No more rat trivia. — Richard Paul Evans

I once heard it said that everyone needs love-and if they're denied, they'll find it, or a reasonable substitute somewhere. — Richard Paul Evans

In most cases, true greatness is a silent and lonely affair, unaccompanied by the trumpeted fanfare of acclaim. — Richard Paul Evans

It's been said that every new beginning in some other beginning's end. — Richard Paul Evans

Some so fear the future that they suffocate the present. It's like committing suicide to avoid being murdered. — Richard Paul Evans

Everyone can open a book not everyone can appreciate the beauty of the writing. — Richard Paul Evans

The past makes a good bishop but a poor king ... it's good to take counsel from the past but not to be ruled by it. Otherwise we end up using today to fight yesterday's battles and miss tomorrow's promise. — Richard Paul Evans

A united people is a smoldering revolution. A divided people is a conquered people. — Richard Paul Evans

My mom used to say that faith and fear can't exist simultaneously in the mind any more than light and dark can exist simultaneously in the same room. — Richard Paul Evans

It's been said that the Magi, wise men, gazed up into the night skies, following a star. But they were not looking for a star. They were looking for hope. Hope of a new world. Hope of redemption. Light is not found in dark places, & hope is not found looking down or looking back. May you always look up. — Richard Paul Evans

Can you ever forgive me? I already have. How could you? I don't deserve it. That's what makes it love. — Richard Paul Evans

I don't get that, I mean, what's power? Let's say he suddenly becomes king of the world. What is he going to do with it that he can't do now? Is his food going to taste better? Is the weather going to be nicer? Will love feel better? I just don't understand that mentality. — Richard Paul Evans

I don't think it is as much a human foible as it is a human curse that we cannot understand the beauty of a thing until it is gone. — Richard Paul Evans

Without dreams life is a desert — Richard Paul Evans

The thing is, the only real sign of life is growth. And growth requires pain. So to choose life is to accept pain. — Richard Paul Evans

I find myself seeking out the commonalities of our different religious experiences with hopes of encouraging, through my writings, the most hopeful, loving and redemptive qualities in all of us. — Richard Paul Evans

Oftentimes, the hottest fires of hell are fueled from within. — Richard Paul Evans

If the errors of my life have profited me one great truth it is this: believe. Believe in your destiny and the star from which it shines. Believe you have been sent from God as an arrow pulled from his own bow. It is the single universal trait which the great of this earth have all shared, while the shadows are fraught with ghosts who roam the winds with mournful wails of regret on their lips. Believe as if your life depended upon it, for indeed it does. — Richard Paul Evans

I hope you can someday forgive me.'
'I forgive you now. — Richard Paul Evans

If love is our reason we may veer off course sometimes, but we'll never be lost. — Richard Paul Evans

Michael, I think we need to break up." If — Richard Paul Evans

Some men see mountains as obstacles. Others as a canvas. — Richard Paul Evans

Nothing heals the soul like chocolate ... It's God's apology for broccoli. — Richard Paul Evans

Even the most horribl e of nightmares is laced with the promise of dawn. — Richard Paul Evans

Sometimes the most whole people are those who come from the most broken circumstances. — Richard Paul Evans

I love to sleep. It's like being dead without the commitment. — Richard Paul Evans

Too many times we lose today's battles because we're still engaged in fighting yesterday's. — Richard Paul Evans

It's our memories that make us who we are. Without them, we're nothing. If that means we have to hurt sometimes, it's worth it. — Richard Paul Evans

For most of my life I have thought of grace as a hope of a bright tomorrow in spite of the darkness of today
and this is true. In this way we are all like Pamela, walking a road to grace
hoping for mercy. What we fail to realize is that grace is more than our destination, it is the journey itself, manifested in each breath and with each step we take. Grace surrounds us, whirls about us like the wind, falls on us like rain. Grace sustains us on our journeys, no matter how perilous they may be and, make no mistake, they are all perilous. We need not hope for grace, we merely need to open our eyes to its abundance. Grace is all around us, not just in the hopeful future but in the miracle of now. — Richard Paul Evans

There are people who come into our lives as welcome as a cool breeze in summer- and last about as long. — Richard Paul Evans

Man has left footprints on the moon but still hasn't walked on the ocean floor. — Richard Paul Evans

Why is it that we so easily confide secrets to strangers that we so carefully hide from ourselves? — Richard Paul Evans

Deep in our hearts everyone walks free. — Richard Paul Evans

What if we all carried little timers that counted down the days of our lives? Maybe the timer's a bit dramatic. Just the date would do. It could be tattooed on our foreheads like the expiration date on a milk bottle. It might be a good thing. Maybe we'd stop wasting our lives worrying about things that never happen or collecting things that we can't take with us. We'd probably treat people better. We certainly wouldn't be screaming at someone who had a day left. Maybe people would finally stop living like they're immortal. Maybe we could finally learn how to live. — Richard Paul Evans

I would say that I was without faith, but no one is truly faithless; they just have faith in the wrong things: fear and defeat. — Richard Paul Evans

Like all living things, love, too, struggles against hardship, and in the process sheds its fatuous skin to expose one composed of more than just a storm of emotion-one of loyalty and divine friendship. And though it may be temporarily blinded by adversity, it never gives in or up, holding tight to lofty ideals that transcend this earth and time- while its counterfeit simply concludes it was mistaken and quickly runs off to find the next real thing. — Richard Paul Evans

We all got things under our skin. Everybody does. Like a glass sliver. Can't see nothin' there, but it works its way in deeper and gets to festerin' and hurts so that we're ready to just cut the whole thing out. — Richard Paul Evans