Things I Learned And Wrote By Age 17

•  Dirty rubs off onto clean, but clean doesn't rub off onto dirty.

• The problem with the world is that people give more weight to what people think than what God thinks.

•  Never underestimate the value of plain speaking.

• Every situation has come to pass.
• Every situation will come to pass.

•  Most of the time, it is impossible for the actions of God to make sense to man.

• Don't try to make a good impression, try to make an accurate one.

•  If all were privileged to glimpse Hell once, immorality would cease to exist.

•  Never underestimate the ability, propensity, and inevitability of human emotion to change.

• If a relationship with God was dependent on feeling, none would have such a relationship.

• One man climbed a mountain.  One man took a helicopter to the top.  Which one enjoyed the view?

• Profanity is a weak mind expressing itself forcibly.

• Those who would change their past use past mistakes to change their future.

• Among the least common things in the world are common decency, common courtesy, and common sense.

• If you ever need to say, "I swear," to be believed, you are not trustworthy.

• Casual profanity suggests an uncreative mind.

• We cannot understand a God any more than a two-dimensional being can fathom a third dimension.

•  Mankind has the downfall of depending on words as the highest form of communication.

• If you have fear, you have no faith.  If you have no faith, you have no confidence.  If you have no confidence, you have no peace.  If you have no peace, you have no joy.

• Suffering is desire.

• Don't worry about things you can't change, and don't worry about things you can change.

• Life is a bed of roses.  One side is a flower, the other is thorns.

•  God doesn't send people to Hell, people send themselves.  God sends sin to Hell.  People who refuse to let go of sin will go where it goes.

• It is possible to love someone you don't like.

•  God operates on the edge of possibility.
• Because of this, no one will ever be able to prove or disprove a god.

• Inside every head is a different world.

• Respect is derived from discernment to know the "when."

• True heroes are never known.

• If you want to be cool, stop trying to be.

• No power is comparable to the power of self-control.

• Laziness is merely the degree of satisfaction with incompletion.

• Life is a series of choices, emotions, and experiences, both good and bad which combine to form a picture that is both ugly and beautiful, dull and exciting, heartbreaking and joyful; though the painting's appearance is different for each individual, the above traits are always the same.  Life is an infinite cycle of valleys after mountains.  Life is learning to stand up after being knocked flat on your back.  Life can be felt by viewing the expansiveness of the sky, smelling the ocean air, hearing the sound of human laughter, tasting the ice cream a loved one bought for you, or feeling the warmth of human touch.  Life is not blinding oneself to the truth, but realizing the good and bad in the world and appreciating the bad for allowing us to recognize the good.  Life is not found in the satisfaction of infatuation, but in the filling of emptiness.  Life is about everyone else.  Life is to love more than to hate, to compliment more than to criticize, and to laugh more than to mourn.

• Building up is made possible through breaking down.

• Death is merely the transition between two forms of living.

• There is a limit to man's knowledge of God, but there is no limit to his stupidity.

• Be thankful when:
• You have to listen to bad singing.  You can hear.
• You stumble over your words.  You can speak.
• You are told you are wrong.  You are cared for.
• You read an unsatisfying book.  You can see.

• Belief: the place where the heart and mind unite.

• What you refuse to use, you choose to lose.

• Happiness is merely the remission of pain.

• Human beings are driven by an innate desire to find happiness that is permanent, a quest that leads many to ruined lives through indulgence of pleasure, lust, and infatuation, which are merely temporary forms of happiness.

• Tears are the expulsion of heightened emotions.

• Lack of palpability does not negate existence.

• The variance of reaction to given situations gauges uniqueness.

• Respect comes to him by whom it is given.

• All are fools who do not attempt to understand the gravity of God.

• Most people are searching to hear what they want to believe, rather than to find truth.

• It is the collective sum of experiences of an individual that determines what they can believe and hinders what they cannot.

• In life, a person is in one of three stages: entering a trial, in a trial, or exiting a trial.

• Every lesson in life can be learned two ways: watching and doing.
• Through observation, one knows.  Through participation, one understands.
• Observe and know the bad.  Experience and understand the good.

• Whether to a higher power or a darker power, one is a lifetime servant.

• It is human nature to be dissatisfied with what one has.  This comes from an inbred covetous spirit.

• Treat every person as if they were famous.

• It is human nature to strive for significance.  This is why humans reject conformity.
• It is human nature to long for acceptance.  This is why humans embrace conformity.

• As a smooth mountain is insurmountable, so is a life free of problems void of purpose.

• He who is humble, as low as the dust, is not easily brought down.

• The measure of a man or woman is a ratio of mental age to physical age.

• To live in the moment is the lesson that every child knows and every adult has forgotten.

• A good man does what he doesn't want to do for the benefit of another.

• A teacher can only open the door.  It is the student who must walk through it.

• True listening is allowing for the possibility of a change of mind.

• If a man is a candle, the flame is knowledge.

• The greatest weakness of all is to know right and to choose not to do it.

• Success of life is gauged by two things: 1. How much God has changed you  2. How much you have changed others.

• Eye contact can by human nature cause discomfort and self-awareness.  This is evidence of the power of human contact.

• When you go to church, the devil goes with you.

• Not all who hang their head are sad.  Not all who wander are lost.  Not all who smile are happy.

• You gain the strength of the temptation you resist.

• Laughter is a means of drawing in everyone.

• Conditional integrity is not integrity.

• Time is what brings hardship, death, breakdown, forgetfulness, pain, ills, and remorse; yet everyone wants more of it.

• Life is a staircase, not an escalator.

• Anything you treat with more importance than God, is your god.

• Love is best explained with music.

• The policy of the world is to make drunk the sober mind with the wine of entertainment.

• It is better to have had no intention than not to carry out a good intention.

• The majority of the "Christian" religion fights holiness.

• The greatest ally of humor is truth.