Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.

Some of the writers I admire who seem very very funny and very emotional to me can develop a closeness with the reader without giving too much of themselves away. Lorrie Moore comes to mind as does David Sedaris. When they write the reader thinks that they're being trusted as a friend.

Guilt: the gift that keeps on giving.

Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding mutual confidence sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses.

If instead of a gem or even a flower we should cast the gift of a loving thought into the heart of a friend that would be giving as the angels give.

When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us we often find that it is those who instead of giving advice solutions or cures have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.

As a 22-year Army Veteran who served in Operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom and as a Civilian Advisor to the Afghan Army in Operation Enduring Freedom I understand both the gravity of giving the order and the challenge of carrying it out.

Giving up even an ounce of precious freedom is a very serious thing to do.

We're giving our freedoms away. The American experiment was about freedom. Freedom to be stupid freedom to fail freedom to succeed.

Forgiveness is the giving and so the receiving of life.