James Madison Quotes

You cannot possess all and everything. Whatsoever you possess will not give you contentment. The mind, the ego, will always feel unfulfilled.

One of the dangers of having a lot of money is that you may be quite satisfied with the kinds of happiness money can give and so fail to realize your need for God. If everything seems to come simply by signing checks, you may forget that you are at every moment totally dependent on God.

Music touches our innermost being, and in that way produces new life, a life that gives exaltation to the whole being, raising it to that perfection in which lies the fulfillment of man's life.

When you don't have any money, any things, any house - if you are unattached, what is the difficulty in it? But when you have everything and you remain unattached - a beggar in the palace - then something very deep has been attained.

It's not selfish to give TO yourself as much as you give OF yourself

I'm a Mormon, but I share your faith in the atonement of the savior, Jesus Christ. In my faith, we have a guy who gave his life for what he believed in. You don't have to believe it; I'm not asking you to. I'm asking you, "What is it that you believe? Are you willing to give your life?"

God is the creativity, so if you really want to enter into the world of God you will have to learn the ways of creativity - and that has disappeared. Instead of creativity we value productivity: we talk about how to produce more. Production can give you things but cannot give you values. Production can make you rich outwardly but it will impoverish you inwardly. Production is not creation. Production is very mediocre; any stupid person can do it, one simply needs to learn the knack of it.

I have a certainty about eternity that is a wonderful thing, and I thank God for giving me that certainty. I do not fear death. I may fear a little bit about the process, but not death itself, because I think the moment that my spirit leaves this body, I will be in the presence of the Lord.

Without nourishing our own souls, we can't nourish the world, for we cannot give what we do not have. As we attend to our souls, we emanate invisibly and involuntarily the light we have received.

If we had the power over the ends of the earth, it would not give us that fulfillment of existence which a quiet devoted relationship to nearby life can give us.

God's people need to unashamedly and uncompromisingly stand on the Bible. We need to unashamedly proclaim a Christian worldview and the gospel, all the while giving answers for the hope we have.

He had everything, but he possessed nothing. There is the spiritual secret.

Life is enriched by aspiration and effort, rather than by acquisition and accumulation.

You can give joyfully only when you have found something so valuable within yourself that everything else does not mean so much to you anymore.

I have had wealth, rank and power, but, if these were all I had, how wretched I should be.

Success may or may not mean that you've acquired a lot. It does mean that you have become a generous person.

This country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor.

Will you gather daydreams or will you gather wealth? How can you find your fortune when you cannot find yourself?

I don't think we should read for instruction but to give our souls a chance to luxuriate.

I care for riches, to make gifts.

We have been distracted into unnatural motivations: money, prestige, power. Listening to the cuckoo is not going to give you money. Listening to the cuckoo is not going to give you power, prestige. Watching the butterfly is not going to help you economically, politically, socially. These things are not paying, but these things make you happy.

My crown is in my heart, not on my head; not decked with diamonds and Indian stones, nor to be seen: my crown is called content, a crown it is that seldom kings enjoy.

I want to live, I want to give, I've been a miner for a heart of gold.

We cannot continue to get caught up in having material abundance and yet be fundamentally and spiritually broke.

All plenty which is not my God is poverty to me.