Pepper Pratt

“When he had moved to New York nine years earlier, he said, his big brother Richard had tucked a note into his luggage. Ray read it, in tears, to the audience: “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?”
― John Ortberg, Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You

“Self is a stand-alone, do-it-yourself unit, while the soul reminds us we were not made for ourselves. The soul always exists before God. So soul is needed for deep art, poetry, and music. Former opera singer Scott Flaherty said it best: “I mean, when you sing you’re giving voice to your soul.” Imagine singing, “Then sings my self, my Savior God to thee,” or “Jesus, lover of my self.” Innately we know that the self is not the soul, even as we do everything we can”
― John Ortberg, Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You

“In that moment, I decided: I’m willing to do whatever it takes. I will study whatever I need to, practice whatever I need to, force myself to take action and do anything—no matter how scary or uncomfortable—again and again and again until I break out of this cage and create the life I want. I will not quit. I will not stop.”
― Aziz Gazipura, Not Nice: Stop People Pleasing, Staying Silent, & Feeling Guilty... And Start Speaking Up, Saying No, Asking Boldly, And Unapologetically Being Yourself

“had always thought that a lost soul referred to the soul’s destination, not its condition. But”
― John Ortberg, Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You