Inspirational Quotes
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The Dialogue is a state of mind
of one who strives constantly to
put the message of which he is
custodian into the mainstream of
human discourse. It is an example
of the art of spiritual communication.
Pope Paul VI |
If you were born lucky, even your rooster will lay eggs.
-- Russian Proverb
Depend on the rabbit's foot if you will, but remember it didn't work for the rabbit!
-- R. E. Shay
A rich widow weeps with one eye and signals with the other.
-- Portuguese Proverb
If thee marries for money, thee surely will earn it.
-- Ezra Bowen
Better ask twice than lose your way once.
-- Danish Proverb
Experience is the worst teacher; it gives the test before presenting the lesson.
-- Vernon Law
Most of our problems can be solved. Some of them will take brains, and some of them will take patience, but all of them will have to be wrestled with like an alligator in the swamp. Harold Washington (1922-1987)
Idealism increases in direct proportion to one’s distance from the problem -- John Galsworthy (1867-1933), Novelist and dramatist
The best things in life aren’t things -- Ann Landers (1918-2002), Advice columnist
Life is short. Be swift to love! Make haste to be kind! -- Henri F. Amiel (1821-1881), Writer and educator
You're not as young as you used to be, but you're not as old as you're going to be. So watch it! -- Irish Proverb
Old age lives minutes slowly, hours quickly; childhood chews hours and swallows minutes -- Malcolm de Chazal
Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back into the same box -- Italian Proverb
In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king -- Erasmus
Harmony is pure love, for love is complete agreement. Lope de Vega Fuenteovejuna
Love either finds equality or makes it. John Dryden, Marriage A La Mode
He who would rule must hear and be deaf, see and be blind -- German Proverb
To lead the people, walk behind them -- Lao-Tzu
Goodness is always an asset. A man who is straight, friendly and useful may never be famous, but he is respected and liked by all who know him. He has laid a sound foundation for success and he will have a worthwhile life -- Herbert N. Casson (1869-1951), Journalist
It is the greatest good to the greatest number which is the measure of right and wrong -- Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), Jurist and philosopher
You are permitted in time of great danger to walk with the devil until you have crossed the bridge -- Bulgarian Proverb
Growth demands a temporary surrender of security -- Gail Sheehy
Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure . . . than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a grey twilight that knows not victory nor defeat -- Theodore Roosevelt
It is that little bit of insanity that keeps us all sane -- Kevin Cunningham
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted -- Aesop
Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it -- HH The Dali Lama
Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you -- Satchel Paige
Life's tough . . . it's even tougher if you're stupid -- John Wayne
If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with the success unexpected in common hours -- Henry David Thoreau
If you believe in yourself, have dedication and pride and never quit, you'll be a winner. The price of victory is high, but so are the rewards -- Paul "Bear" Bryant (Late, great coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide football team)
Habits are cobwebs at first; cables at last -- Chinese Proverb
It is true that God's power triumphs over everything, but humble and suffering prayer prevails over God Himself -- St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina
To one who has the faith, no explanation is necessary.
To one without faith, no explanation is possible --- St. Thomas Aquinas
One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living.
But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief,
That is a fate more terrible than dying. --- St. Joan of Arc
The things we love tell us what we are --- St. Thomas Aquinas
Faith certainly tells us what the senses do not, but not the contrary of what they see: it is above, not against them -- Blaise Pascal
Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time. Laura Ingallis Wilder
Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step. --- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Mary is the lily in God’s garden --- Bridget of Sweden
To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything is hopeless. --- G.K. Chesterton
Prayer doesn’t change God, it changes him who prays. --- Soren Kiekegaard
I have been all things unholy. If God can work through me, he can work through anyone --- St. Francis of Assisi
Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature --- Saint Augustine
Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved. --- Helen Keller
Let us forgive each other ---- only then will we live in peace. --- Leo Tolstoy
The eyes believe themselves; the ears believe other people -- German Proverb
Some Irish Blessings
May there always be work for your hands to do.
May your purse always hold a coin or two.
May the sun always shine on your windowpane.
May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain.
May the hand of a friend always be near you.
May God fill your heart and gladness to cheer you.
May you live as long as you want, and never want as long as you live.
May you be in Heaven a full half hour before the devil knows ye’re dead.
May God grant you always...A sunbeam to warm you, a moonbeam to charm you, a sheltering Angel so nothing can harm you. Laughter to cheer you. Faithful friends near you. And whenever you pray, Heaven to hear you.
May you have the hindsight to know where you've been, The foresight to know where you are going, And the insight to know when you have gone too far
May God give you...For every storm a rainbow, for every tear a smile, for every care a promise and a blessing in each trial. For every problem life sends, a faithful friend to share, for every sigh a sweet song and an answer for each prayer.
May those who love us, love us; and those who don't love us, may God turn their hearts; and if He doesn't turn their hearts, may he turn their ankles so we'll know them by their limping.
May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.
May flowers always line your path and sunshine light your day. May songbirds serenade you every step along the way. May a rainbow run beside you in a sky that's always blue. And may happiness fill your heart each day your whole life through.
May you live as long as you want and never want as long as you live” May you live as long as you want and never want as long as you live
May the strength of God pilot us, may the wisdom of God instruct us, may the hand of God protect us, may the word of God direct us. Be always ours this day and for evermore. - St. Patrick
They say that man is mighty,
He governs land and sea;
He wields a mighty scepter
O'er lesser powers that be;
And the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world -- William Ross Wallace
A good exercise for the heart is to bend down and help someone up -- Unknown
A champion is someone who gets up even when he can’t -- Jack Dempsey
Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the Stars -- Unknown
A minute spent in anger is 60 seconds of happiness lost -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
He who takes eats well; he who gives sleeps well -- Unknown
America -- Land of the free because we are the home of the brave
A friend is someone who reached for your hand and touched your heart -- Unknown
Motivation is what gets you started. Habit keeps you going -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
When you are going through Hell, keep going -- Winston Churchill
Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase -- Martin Luther King Jr.
80% of success is showing up -- Woody Allen
Every Action done in Company, ought to be with Some Sign of Respect, to those that are Present -- George Washington
When in Company, put not your Hands to any Part of the Body, not usually Discovered -- George Washington
Show Nothing to your Friend that may affright him -- George Washington
In the Presence of Others Sing not to yourself with a humming Noise, nor Drum with your Fingers or Feet -- George Washington
If You Cough, Sneeze, Sigh, or Yawn, do it not Loud but Privately; and Speak not in your Yawning, but put your Handkercheif or Hand before your face and turn aside -- George Washington
Sleep not when others Speak, Sit not when others stand, Speak not when you Should hold your Peace, walk not when others Stop -- George Washington
Many of our fears are tissue-paper-thin, and a single courageous step would carry us clear through them -- Brendan Francis Behan
Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow -- Swedish Proverb
Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows -- Helen Keller
Indifference never wrote great works, nor thought out striking inventions, nor reared the solemn architecture that awes the soul, nor breathed sublime music, nor painted glorious pictures, nor undertook heroic philanthropies. All these grandeurs are born of enthusiasm, and are done heartily -- Author unknown
Enthusiasm is the greatest asset in the world. It beats money and power and influence -- Henry Chester
He who is carried on another's back does not appreciate how far off the town is -- African Proverb
There are no shortcuts to any place worth going -- Beverly Sills
You know what charm is? It is a way of getting the answer yes without having asked a clear question -- Albert Camus
His greatest subject was the relation of corruptible action to absolute principle; of worldly means to transcendent ends; of historical commitment to personal desire -- Irving Howe
No word and no gesture can be more persuasive than the life and, if necessary, the death of a man who strives to be free, loyal, just, sincere, disinterested. A man who shows what a man can be -- Ignazio Silone
I hold that a life of perfect continence in thought, speech and action is necessary for reaching spiritual perfection. And a nation that does not possess such men is poorer for the want -- Gandhi
Sin isn't interesting but conversion is -- Heather King
No one can be poor who has enough, nor rich who covets more -- Seneca
I am not alone at all, I thought. I was never alone at all. And that, of course, is the message of Christmas. We are never alone. Not when the night is darkest, the wind coldest, the world seemingly most indifferent. For this is still the time God chooses -- Taylor Caldwell
Sacred art is a language, not a decor . . . -- H. A. Reinhold
Count your blessings instead of your crosses,
Count your gains instead of your losses.
Count your joys instead of your woes;
Count your friends instead of your foes.
Count your smiles instead of your tears;
Count your courage instead of your fears.
Count your full years instead of your lean;
Count your kind deeds instead of your mean.
Count your health instead of your wealth;
Count on God instead of yourself.
To live is to remember and to remember is to live -- Samuel Butler
“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tunes without the words –
And never stops – at all -- Emily Dickinson
I know it when I see it -- Justice Potter Stewart
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched.
They must be felt with the heart. – Helen Keller
We make war that we may live in peace --- Aristotle
The time is always right to do what is right – Martin Luther King
Nothing happens unless first we dream --- Carl Sandburg
Where there is great love there are always miracles --- Willa Cather
I would rather feel compassion than know the meaning of it --- Thomas Aquinas
We can even say that economic growth is dependent on social progress, the goal to which it aspires; and that basic education is the first objective for any nation seeking to develop itself. Lack of education is as serious as lack of food; the illiterate is a starved spirit. When someone learns how to read and write, he is equipped to do a job and to shoulder a profession, to develop self confidence and realize that he can progress along with others" ("Populorum Progressio," 35)
Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." (Sign hanging in Einstein's office at Princeton)
If I had my life to live over again, I'd be a plumber -- Albert Einstein
Imagination is more important than knowledge – Albert Einstein
It is important to foster individualism for only the individual can produce the new idea – Einstein
In teaching history, there should be extensive discussion of personalities who benefited mankind through independence of character and judgment – Einstein
I believe that love is a better teacher than a sense of duty, at least for me – Einstein
Praise be science! Praise be the men who do it! And praised be the human mind, which sees more sharply than does the human eye – Einstein
A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth -- Einstein
What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy? -- Mahatma Gandhi
The moment the slave resolves that he will no longer be a slave, his fetters fall. He frees himself and shows the way to others. Freedom and slavery are mental states -- Mahatma Gandhi
Non-violence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my creed -- Mahatma Gandhi
In my humble opinion, non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good -- Mahatma Gandhi
Hatred can be overcome only by love -- Mahatma Gandhi
Love never claims, it ever gives; love never suffers, never resents, never revenges itself. Where there is love there is life; hatred leads to destruction -- Mahatma Gandhi
You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty -- Mahatma Gandhi
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind -- Mahatma Gandhi
A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave -- Mahatma Gandhi
Non-violence which is a quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain -- Mahatma Gandhi
When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall – think of it, ALWAYS -- Mahatma Gandhi
Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones. And when you have finished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake -- Victor Hugo
When a Christian shuns fellowship with other Christians, the devil smiles. When he stops studying the Bible, the devil laughs. When he stops praying, the devil shouts for joy -- Corrie Ten Boom
No matter how rich or poor we are, we will always be rich compared to some people and poor compared to others -- Anonymous
Generosity is powerful medicine that tastes good -- Anonymous
Wants quickly grow up to be needs -- Anonymous
Wealth is more about focus than about money, and focus is a choice -- Anonymous
Generosity fosters abundance -- Anonymous
Notice, we never pray for folks we gossip about, and we never gossip about the folk for whom we pray! For prayer is a great deterrent -- Leonard Ravenhill
Let me tell you this: Faith comes and goes. But if it is presumptuous to think that faith will stay forever, it is just as presumptuous to think that unbelief will -- Flannery O'Connor
Difficult times have helped me to understand better than before how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way, and that so many things that one goes worrying about are of no importance whatsoever -- Isak Denison
There are no shortcuts to any place worth going -- Beverly Sills
God does not work by only one method, paint in only one color, play in only one key, nor does He make only one star shine onto the earth -- Eberhard Arnold
Let’s not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now and trust that we will soon see in it the guiding hand of a loving God -- Henri Nouwen
Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither -- C.S. Lewis
Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point -- C.S. Lewis
Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil -- C.S. Lewis.
Eros will have naked bodies; Friendship naked personalities -- C.S. Lewis
Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it -- C.S. Lewis
Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: What! You too? I thought I was the only one -- C.S. Lewis
There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done' -- C.S. Lewis
Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives -- C.S. Lewis
The problem is not that Christianity has been tried and found wanting, but rather that it's been found difficult and never tried -- G.K. Chesterton
By a lie a person throws away and, as it were, annihilates his dignity as a person -— Emmanuel Kant
No one can attain the truth without a hundred errors along the way -— Meister Eckhart
When in doubt tell the truth. It will confound your enemies and astound your friends -- Mark Twain
The opposite of a true statement is a false statement, but the opposite of a profound truth can be another profound truth -- Niels Bohr
Dialogue is only possible between people who remain what they are, and who speak the truth -- Albert Camus
The first casualty of war is truth -— Anonymous
As fish were made to swim in water, human beings were made to thrive in the truth -— Nicholas Lash
Real genius is nothing else but the supernatural virtue of humility in the domain of thought -— Simone Weil
We do not obtain the most precious gifts by going in search of them but by waiting for them. This way of looking is, in the first place, attentive. The soul empties itself of all its own contents in order to receive the human being it is looking at, just as he is, in all his truth -- Simone Weil
Live as though you’ll die tomorrow, learn as though you’ll live forever -- Anonymous
No winter lasts forever, no spring skips its turn -- Hal Borland
Give to the world the best you have and the best will come back to you -- Anonymous
The reward of a thing well done is to have done it -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Courage is not freedom from fear. It’s being afraid and going on anyway -- Anonymous
The high-minded man must care more for what is right than for what people think -- Aristotle
In nothing do men approach so nearly to the gods as in doing good to men -- Cicero
Victory is in the doing -- Anonymous
The perfect journey is circular ---- the joy of departure and the joy of return -- Dino Basli
An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day -- Henry David Thoreau
Cherishing children is the mark of a civilized society -- Joan Ganz Cooney
The world stands upon three things:
Upon truth
Upon peace
Upon justice
“Speak truth each to the other, establish peace, and render honest judgment in your gates” (Zechariah 8:16) -- Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel
If people think you are wise,
do not think that you are special.
Wisdom comes from knowing Reality,
and knowing Reality is the purpose
for which you were created -- Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai
Be exceedingly humble,
for the hope of humankind
is the worm -- Rabbi Levitas of Yavneh
Sages do not speak before those
Whose wisdom and experience exceed their own;
do not interrupt another’s words;
are not in a hurry to reply;
ask relevant questions, give relevant answers;
speak without deception;
feel free to say, “I don’t know”
when the matter is unfamiliar;
acknowledge the Truth and admit error -- Unknown author
We are here to do.
And through doing to learn;
And through learning to know;
And through knowing to attain wonder;
And through wonder to attain wisdom;
And through wisdom to find simplicity;
And through simplicity to give attention;
And through attention
To see what needs to be done -- Ben Hei Hei
Both the man of science and the man of art live always at the edge of mystery -- J. Robert Oppenheimer
Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried -- G.K. Chesterton
Suggestions for Fasting and Feasting: Fast from discontent; feast on thankfulness. Fast from worry; feast on trust. Fast from anger; feast on patience -- Anonymous
Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried -- G.K. Chesterton
Leadership is not about power. It's not about control; it's about helping people live according to the vision -- Ken Blanchard & Phil Hodges
The fruit of Silence is prayer.
The fruit of Prayer is faith.
The fruit of Faith is love.
The fruit of Love is service.
The fruit of Service is peace -- Mother Teresa
If you believe what you like in the gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it’s not the gospel you believe, but yourself -- Augustine of Hippo
Of this there is no doubt, our age and Protestantism in general may need the monastery again, or wish it were there. The ‘monastery’ is an essential dialectical element in Christianity. We therefore need it out there like a navigation buoy at sea in order to see where we are, even though I myself would not enter it. But if there really is true Christianity in every generation, there must also be individuals who have this need -- Soren Kierkegaard
Give up all else that you may be a man of prayer. Leave the common people on the plain and with Moses climb the mountain to pray to God -- Dom Bonaventure, Prior of Parkminster
Whoever wants to eliminate love is preparing to eliminate man as such -- Pope Benedict XVI
It is terrible when people do not know God, but it is worse when people confuse God with what is not God -- Leo Tolstoy
Live seeking God, then you will not live without God -- Leo Tolstoy
How does a lapse of faith occur? Very simply: one begins to live like everybody else -- Leo Tolstoy
It is far easier to write ten volumes of philosophy than to put a single precept into practice -- Leo Tolstoy
We regret losing a purse or wallet full of money, but a good thought which has come to us, which we have either heard or read, a thought which we should have remembered and applied to our life, which could have improved the world --- we lose this thought and promptly forget about it, and we do not regret it, though it is more precious than millions -- Leo Tolstoy
There is no such thing as a political change of social systems: only moral change within the soul -- Leo Tolstoy
Dissatisfaction with oneself is a sign of friction, and therefore a sign of movement -- Leo Tolstoy
The conscience cannot be calmed by new ideas. No. It can be calmed only when we stop trying to justify ourselves -- Leo Tolstoy
A river that is deep does not make waves when someone throws a stone into it. The same applies with us. If you get angry at insults thrown at you, you are a puddle -- Leo Tolstoy
To put an engine in position, to heat the boiler, to set it in motion, but not to attach the connecting belt is what has been done with the teaching of Christ. People teach Christianity but don’t practice it -- Leo Tolstoy
If you are not strong, ask for troubles to make you so -- Leo Tolstoy
“Without suffering we know neither our limitations, nor ourselves -- Leo Tolstoy
Wherein lies true suffering? Suffering consists of being conscious of my sinfulness and how my sin contradicts life and then to feel further how far I am from realizing in my own person the truth which seeks to manifest itself in the world -- Leo Tolstoy
“You are afraid of death, but ask yourself what it would be like if you had to live forever as the person you are now -- Leo Tolstoy
Death is the transformation of the envelope that contains our spirit. Do not confuse the envelope with its contents -- Leo Tolstoy
Our good qualities do us far more harm than our bad ones -- Leo Tolstoy
There is no middle way: you are a slave either of people or of God -- Leo Tolstoy
Either be silent or say things that are worth more than silence -- Leo Tolstoy
If you wish to better your life, be ready to sacrifice it -- Leo Tolstoy
We torture ourselves with the past and in our worry spoil the future simply because we do not pay sufficient attention to the present. The past is gone. The future does not exist. There is only now -- Leo Tolstoy
Wealth should be like manure in the field. When it is in a big pile it makes a bad smell. But when it is distributed everywhere across the field, it makes the soil fertile -- Leo Tolstoy
As long as I have food I don’t need when someone else has none, or have two coats and someone else has none, I share in a constantly repeated crime -- Leo Tolstoy
The worst thief is not the one who takes what he needs but the one who keeps what he does not need when others need it -- Leo Tolstoy
The simplest and shortest rule of morality consists in compelling as little service as possible from others, and serving others as much as possible. It involves demanding as little as possible from others, and in giving others as much as possible -- Leo Tolstoy
The only person who doesn’t fall is the one who doesn’t strive toward anything. Fall a thousand times and get up a thousand times and if you don’t despair, you will make progress -- Leo Tolstoy
The habit of giving into our lusts is like a hidden stream under the foundations of a house. The house will eventually fall -- Leo Tolstoy
Love alone is the only reasonable activity or pursuit of humankind . . . For love not only annihilates our fear of meaningless but empowers us to seek the happiness of others. And this indeed is our greatest happiness -- Leo Tolstoy
It is love that makes us see beauty, not beauty -- Leo Tolstoy
The very best love is unconscious love -- Leo Tolstoy
Just as all the water drains out of a bucket with even the tiniest hole, all the joy of life drains from our soul when we hate even one person -- Leo Tolstoy
The evil we use violence against to protect ourselves from is far less evil than the evil we do to ourselves by using violence -- Leo Tolstoy
There is a hard and fast rule we must always remember: if a good end can be achieved only through bad means, either it is not a good end, or its time has not yet come -- Leo Tolstoy
To destroy another life for the sake of justice is like repairing the misfortunate of losing one arm by cutting off the other arm for the sake of equity -- Leo Tolstoy
We dislike people not because they are evil; we think they are evil because we dislike them -- Leo Tolstoy
What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are, but how you deal with incompatibility -- Leo Tolstoy
Remorse is like the cracking of an eggshell or a grain of corn, as a result of which the seed starts to grow -- Leo Tolstoy
To keep ourselves totally apart so as not to become sullied is the most sullied thing of all -- Leo Tolstoy
One of the most dangerous temptations is the temptation to prepare to live, instead of living -- Leo Tolstoy
We can only really understand ourselves when we can see ourselves in everyone else -- Leo Tolstoy
Whatever you can do or dream, you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet -- Frederick Buechner
For me the Voice of God, of Conscience, of Truth, or the Inner Voice or “the Still Small Voice” mean one and the same thing -- Gandhi
Our deepest calling is to grow into our authentic selfhood -- Parker Palmer
To open ourselves to the truth and to bring ourselves face to face with our personal and collective reality is not an option that can be accepted or rejected. It is an undeniable requirement of all people and all societies that seek to humanize themselves and to be free -- Bishop Jan Gerardi
For a dreamer lives forever, and a toiler dies in a day -- John Boyle O’ Reilly, “The Cry of the Dreamer”
In his poor heart man has places which do not yet exist and into them enters suffering in order to bring them to life -- Leon Bloy, “Pilgrim of the Absolute.”
It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat -- Teddy Roosevelt
A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself -- Alexandre Dumas
When a Christian shuns fellowship with other Christians, the devil smiles. When he stops studying the Bible, the devil laughs. When he stops praying, the devil shouts for joy -- Corrie Ten Boom
Always behave like a duck — keep calm and unruffled on the surface but paddle like the devil underneath -- Jacob Braude
Whatever we leave to God, God does and blesses us -- Henry David Thoreau, "Inspiration"
Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
"Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome."
– Samuel Johnson
"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock."
– Thomas Jefferson
Write injuries in sand, kindnesses in marble.
--French Proverb
You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish -- Ovid
The love of God is like the Amazon river flowing down to water one daisy -- Unknown
Since God offers to manage our affairs for us, let us once and for all hand them over to His infinite wisdom, in order to occupy ourselves only with Himself and what belongs to Him -- J.P. de Caussade
We are all wanderers on this earth. Our hearts are full of wonder, and our souls are deep with dreams -- Gypsy Proverb
Life begins as a quest of the child for the man and ends as a journey by the man to rediscover the child -- Laurens van der Post
Life is for one generation; a good name is forever --Japanese Proverb
What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us --Ralph Waldo Emerson
The best gifts to give:
To your friend, loyalty;
To your enemy, forgiveness;
To your boss, service;
To a child, a good example;
To your parents, gratitude and devotion;
To your mate, love and faithfulness;
To all men and women, charity -- Oren Arnold
He prays well who is so absorbed with God that he does not know he is praying -- François de Sales
Only your real friends will tell you when your face is dirty -- Sicilian Proverb
We love those who know the worst of us and don't turn their faces away -- Walker Percy
It's easy to halve the potato where there's love -- Irish Proverb
Only love can be divided endlessly and still not diminish -- Anne Morrow Lindbergh
If one is going to change things, one has to make a fuss and catch the eye of the world -- Elizabeth Janeway
To be a great champion you must believe you are the best. If you're not, pretend you are -- Muhammad Ali
The net of Heaven is large and wide, but it lets nothing through -- Chinese Proverb
God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere -- Voltaire
We must find our duties in what comes to us, not in what might have been -- George Eliot
The simplest truths often meet the sternest resistance and are slowest in getting general acceptance -- Frederick Douglass
An old broom knows the dirty corners best -- Irish Proverb
Gossip is the art of saying nothing in a way that leaves practically nothing unsaid -- Walter Winchell
Talking about bulls is not the same as facing them in the ring -- Mexican Proverb
Knowledge, right principles, true thoughts, are not at their post; and the
place lies open to the assault of false and presumptuous notions -- Plato
Christians should live with the Bible in one hand and newspapers in the
other -- Karl Barth
Notice, we never pray for folks we gossip about, and we never gossip about the folk for whom we pray! For prayer is a great deterrent -- Leonard Ravenhill
The contemplative waits in silence and when he is 'answered', it is not so much by a word that bursts into his silence.
It is by this silence itself suddenly, inexplicably, revealing itself to him as a word of great power -- Thomas Merton
Silence like the sunlight will illuminate you in God -- Thomas Merton
There are occasions when you can hear the mysterious language of the Earth, in water, or coming through the trees,
emanating from the mosses, seeping through the undercurrents of the soil; but you have to be willing to wait and receive -- John Hay
Everyone wants to understand art. Why not try to understand the song of a bird? -- Picasso
If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow -- Anonymous Chinese proverb
A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green -- Francis Bacon
I don't hold no grudges more'n five years -- William Kennedy
We advance to the truth by experience of error; we succeed through failures.
We know not how to do right except by having done wrong. . . Such is the
process by which we succeed; we walk to Heaven backwards -- John Henry
Newman
Knowledge, right principles, true thoughts, are not at their post; and the
place lies open to the assault of false and presumptuous notions -- Plato
Know what you are doing, and imitate the mystery you celebrate: Model your
life on the mystery of the Lord's cross --- From the rite of Ordination of a
Priest
Everything lies in the circular movement between procession and return, the
cataphatic and the apophatic, nothing can find fulfillment except by
entering into this movement -- Von Balthasar
The real test of the leader is whether those served grow as persons. Do they
become healthier, wiser, freer, more like themselves to become servants? -- Robert Greenleaf
If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know if you get there? -- An Old Saying
Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may not remember. Involve me, and
I will understand -- American Proverb
You do not lead by hitting people over the head — that’s assault, not
leadership -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
The most important thing a captain can do is to see the ship from the eyes
of the crew -- Pacific Fleet Commander D. Michael Abrashoff
Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you
love what you are doing, you will be successful -- Herman Cain
If you plant for a year, plant grain.
If you plant for ten years, plant trees.
If you plant for a 100 years, plant men.
If you plant for eternity, plant the word -- Unknown
The Bible is one of the greatest blessings bestowed by God on the children of men. It has God for its Author, salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture for its matter. It is all pure, all sincere; nothing too much; nothing wanting! -- John Locke
It's time to stop being gripped by fear and to start gripping God -- Unknown
Quotations Regarding the Mass
"The Mass is the most perfect form of prayer!" - Pope Paul VI
For each Mass we hear with devotion, Our Lord sends a saint to comfort us at death. (revelation of Christ to St. Gertrude the great).
"The Holy Mass would be of greater profit if people had it offered in their lifetime, rather than having it celebrated for the relief of their souls after death" - Pope Benedict XV
Once, St. Teresa was overwhelmed with God's Goodness and asked Our Lord "How can I thank you?" Our Lord replied, "ATTEND ONE MASS."
The Blessed Virgin Mary once told Her faithful servant Alain: "My Son so loves those who assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that, if it were necessary He would die for them as many times as they've heard Masses."
"When we receive Holy Communion, we experience something extraordinary - a joy, a fragrance, a well being that thrills the whole body and causes it to exalt." - Saint Jean Vianney
"If we really understood the Mass, we would die of joy." - Saint Jean Vianney
"There is nothing so great as the Eucharist. If God had something more precious, He would have given it to us." - Saint Jean Vianney
"When we have been to Holy Communion, the balm of love envelops the soul as the flower envelops the bee." - Saint Jean Vianney
"The celebration of Holy Mass is as valuable as the death of Jesus on the cross." - Saint Thomas Aquinas
"It would be easier for the world to survive without the sun than to do without Holy Mass." - Saint Pio
"The heavens open and multitudes of angels come to assist in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass." - Saint Gregory
"The angels surround and help the priest when he is celebrating Mass." - Saint Augustine
"When Mass is being celebrated, the sanctuary is filled with countless angels who adore the divine victim immolated on the altar." - Saint John Chrysostom
Happiness is a butterfly
Which, when pursued, is just out of grasp . . .
But if you will sit down quietly,
May alight upon you -- Nathaniel Hawthorne
Joy is the happiness of love –
love aware of its inner happiness.
Pleasure comes from without,
but Joy comes from within, and it is therefore,
within reach of everyone in the world -- Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
Happiness is the realization
of God in the heart.
Happiness is the result
of praise and thanksgiving,
of faith and acceptance;
a quiet, tranquil realization
of the love of God -- Chief White Eagle
Decide that Joy is the hue
you want your heart to be.
Then start making
the little and large choices that
over time will paint your heart happy -- Thomas Kinkade
The happiness of life
is made up of minute fractions –
the little, soon-forgotten charities
of a kiss or smile,
a kind look, or heartfelt compliment -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
There is no value in life
Except what you choose
To place upon it
And no happiness in any place
Except what you
Bring to yourself -- Henry David Thoreau
The supreme happiness
of life
Is the conviction
That we are loved -- Victor Hugo
When God loves me,
He desires nothing else than to be loved by me.
He loves me in order that I may love Him because
He knows well that all who love Him, find in this
very love their Joy and happiness -- St. Bernard of Clairvaux
There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something tomorrow -- Orison Swett Marden
I choose goodness...I will go without a dollar before I take a dishonest one. I will be overlooked before I will boast. I will confess before I will accuse. I choose goodness -- Max Lucado
Trust . . . is the foundation for innovation and coordination of the supply chain, customer interaction, and market, product and service development -- Peter Keen
Credulity is the man's weakness, but the child's strength -- Charles Lamb (1775 - 1834), British essayist
For what a man would like to be true, that he more readily believes -- Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626), English philosopher, statesman, and lawyer
Trust one who has gone through it -- Virgil (70 - 19 BC), Roman poet
To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man pick'd out of ten thousand -- William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), English poet and playwright
Better to be too credulous than too skeptical -- Anonymous
Distrust that man who tells you to distrust -- Attributed to Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850 - 1919), U.S. poet.
One must always tell what one sees. Above all, which is more difficult, one
must always see what one sees -- Charles Pierre Péguy (1873 - 1914), French writer and poet
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it -- Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)
The true lover of knowledge naturally strives for truth, and is not content
with common opinion, but soars with undimmed and unwearied passion till he
grasps the essential nature of things -- Plato (428? BC - 347? BC)
One falsehood spoils a thousand truths -- Anonymous
Truth fears no trial -- Anonymous
Before you tell the "truth" to the patient, be sure you know the "truth,"
and that the patient wants to hear it -- Richard Clarke Cabot (1868 - 1939)
Errors, like Straws, upon the surface flow;
He who would search for Pearls must dive below -- John Dryden (1631 - 1700), English poet, playwright, and literary critic
God forbid that Truth should be confined to Mathematical Demonstration! -- William Blake (1757 - 1827), British poet, painter, engraver, and mystic
He said true things, but called them by wrong names -- Robert Browning (1812 - 1889), British poet
I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it is hell -- Harry S. Truman (1884 - 1972), U.S. president.
I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for
truth; and truth rewarded me -- Simone de Beauvoir (1908 - 1986), French writer and feminist theorist
If the truth were self-evident, eloquence would be unnecessary -- Cicero (106 - 43 BC), Roman orator and statesman
It is man that makes truth great, not truth that makes man great -- Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC), Chinese philosopher, administrator, and moralist
It is one thing to show a man that he is in an error, and another to put him
in possession of truth -- John Locke (1632 - 1704), English philosopher
It takes two to speak the truth—one to speak, and another to hear -- Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862), U.S. writer
Love truth, but pardon error -- Voltaire (1694 - 1778), French writer and philosopher
Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth -- Attributed to Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)
Sometimes I have to console myself with the fact that he who has lived a lie
loves the truth -- Ingmar Bergman (1918 - ), Swedish film and stage director
The first casualty when war comes is truth -- Hiram W. Johnson (1866 - 1945), U.S. politician and reformer
The inquiry of truth, which is the love-making, or wooing of it, the
knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of truth,
which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature -- Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626), English philosopher, statesman, and lawyer
Truth, in short, from a psychological standpoint, is agreement of relations;
falsity, disagreement of relations -- John Dewey (1859 - 1952), U.S. philosopher and educator
Truth is the breath of life to human society. It is the food of the immortal
spirit. Yet a single word of it may kill a man as suddenly as a drop of
prussic acid -- Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809 - 1894), U.S. physician and writer
Truth sits upon the lips of dying men -- Matthew Arnold (1822 - 1888), British poet and critic
We know the truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart -- Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662), French philosopher, mathematician, and physicist
What is truth said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer -- Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626), English philosopher, statesman, and lawyer
An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failings of mankind -- Walter Bagehot
The being without an opinion is so painful to human nature that most people
will leap to a hasty opinion rather than undergo it -- Walter Bagehot
The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do -- Walter Bagehot
What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul -- Joseph Addison
A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world -- Joseph Addison
A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets
off every great talent which a man can be possessed of -- Joseph Addison
A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants -- Joseph Addison
I consider an human soul without education like marble in the quarry, which
shows none of its inherent beauties till the skill of the polisher fetches
out the colours, makes the surface shine, and discovers every ornamental
cloud, spot and vein that runs through the body of it -- Joseph Addison
Remember, it always pleases God when we come before Him as suppliants. He loves us to ask, pray, beseech, to the point of importunity . . . The Heart of God invites us all to put It to the proof. The more he gives, the more He desires to give. He loves to see the trust which makes us persist in knocking unceasingly -- Blessed Placid Riccardi, OSB, (1844-1915)
Happiness is to hold flowers in both hands – Japanese Proverb
If of they mortal goods thou art bereft
And two loaves alone to thee are left
Sell one, and buy a hyacinths to feed thy soul
– Sheilth Muslik-uddin Saadi Shirazi
Show me your garden and I will tell you what you are like – Alfred Austin
Where flowers bloom, so does hope – Lady Bird Johnson
With a few flowers in my garden . . . I live without envy – Lope de Vega
Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither – Benjamin
Franklin
Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand -- St. Augustine of Hippo
A man can do only what he can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day -- Albert Schweitzer
Some days there aren't any trumpets, just lots of dragons.
Courage doesn't always roar.
Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying,
I will try again tomorrow -- Mary Anne Radmacher
May your walls know joy, each room hold laughter and every window open to greater possibility -- Mary Anne Radmacher
Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for truth -- Benjamin Disraeli
I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it -- Thomas Jefferson
A person who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new -- Albert Einstein
Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Too low they build who build beneath the stars -- Edward Young
The person who teaches others by actions, not words, is truly wise -- Abba Hyperichius
If you think little of yourself, you will have peace wherever you live -- Abba Poemen
If we push ourselves beyond measure we will break; it is right for us from time to time to relax our efforts -- Abba Anthony
Understand that it is not good for someone to despair of himself because of his temptations; rather, temptations procure crowns for us if we use them well -- Annoymous
He who stays in the desert and practices stillness is delivered from three temptations, that of hearing, that of speaking and that of seeing. He has only one temptation, that of the heart -- Abba Anthony
The primary virtue of inner stillness is to transform the heart -- Abba Paul
Self reform and peace are not achieved thrugh the patience which others show us, but through our own long-suffering towards our neighbor -- Abba John Cassian
To live without speaking is better than to speak without living -- Abba Moses
Stillness slows the treadmill of events and desires that distracts us from the One who is essential --- Abbba Poemen
If slackness and greed did not come into the soul, the spirit would not be overcome in combat with the enemy --- Abba Poemen
When a person is no longer imprisioned by attachment to anything he or she become free to enjoy them for what they truly are --- Abba Moses
Live in such a way that those who know you but don’t know God will come to know God because they know you -- Unknown
There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do -- Freya Stark
Hell is the suffering of being unable to love -- from Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov
The true guilt of mankind lies not in our crimes but in our failure to commit acts of love -- from Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov
Love changes one more than knowledge does. Love is more powerful than thought -- from Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov
Active love is more than a feeling or a thought; it is a concrete action -- from Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov
As we advance in love, we grow surer of the reality of God and of the immortality of the soul -- from Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov
Self-forgetfulness, liberation from our own ego and its clamorous demands, is the gift that love gives us -- from Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov
Love brings a voiding of our ego, which allows us to fill it anew. Unless your loving attains to this void or self-emptiness, you have no chance for renewal. This is what Christ meant when he said unless you die, you cannot be reborn or begin anew -- from Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov
Caring for souls (Ministry) means for me helping through truth -- Romano
Guardini
We are limited, not by our abilities, but by our vision -- Anonymous
It is a challenge to all Catholics to never let receiving the Eucharist
become something ordinary -- Shawn Tunink
Twentieth-century English writier G. K. Chesterton noted that, in all the
centuries of the church’s life, and all of the predictions that the church
was going to the dogs, “it was always the dog that died.”
There's a difference between dying to one's self and killing one's self -- Annoymous
God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world -- C. S. Lewis
I have never known a successful man who did not appreciate the discipline that it takes to win -- Vince Lombardi
Grief knits two hearts in closer bonds than happiness ever can; and common sufferings are far stronger links than common joys -- Alphonse de Lamartine
Everything that happens to you is your teacher. The secret is to sit at the feet of your own life and be taught by it -- Polly B. Berends
We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you can -- Teddy Roosevelt
As the sun illuminates the moon and stars so let us illuminate each other -- Master Lui
Look well into thyself. There is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou will always look there. Marcus Aurelius
Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step: only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find his right road -- Dag Hammarskjold
Life yields only to the conqueror. Never accept what can be gained by giving in. You will be living off stolen goods, and your muscles will atrophy -- Dag Hammarskjold
We carry our nemesis within us: yesterday’s self-admiration is the legitimate father of today’s feeling of guilt -- Dag Hammarskjold
That God should have time for you, you seem to take as much for granted as that you cannot have time for Him -- Dag Hammarskjold
Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for -- Dag Hammarskjold
God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason -- Dag Hammarskjold
Goodness is something so simple: always to live for others, never to seek one’s own advantage -- Dag Hammarskjold
To be free, to be able to stand up and leave everything behind — without looking back. To say Yes — Dag Hammarskjold
Sometimes victory isn’t an option. And when you’re probably going to lose. . .why not do it with style, and maybe, just maybe, do a little good in the process? -- Anonymous
Oh for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
Some boundless contiguity of shade,
Where rumour of oppression and deceit,
Of unsuccessful or successful war,
Might never reach me more -- William Cowper
Facts influence. They are revered by people who cannot contradict them. Like statistics they are extremely dangerous. They must be controlled and only revealed where essential -- Michael Shea
A good scientist is a person in whom the childlike quality of perennial curiosity lingers on. Once he gets an answer, he has other questions -- Frederick Seitz
Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they lie in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat -- Theodore Roosevelt
A man should live only for the present day -- Sophocles
Never let success hide its emptiness from you, achievement its nothingness, toil its desolation. And so . . . keep alive the incentive to push on further, that pain in the soul which drives us beyond ourselves -- Dag Hammarskjöld
Believe me! The secret of reaping the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously!-- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
The whole life of man is but a point of time; let us enjoy it, therefore, while it lasts, and not spend it to no purpose -- Plutarch
I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow-creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again -- Stephen Grellet
Grab a chance and you won't be sorry for a might have been -- Arthur Ransome
To choose time is to save time -- Francis Bacon
I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed -- Jonathan Swift
The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone -- Harriet Beecher Stowe
Go where your body and soul want to go. When you have the feeling, then stay with it and don’t let anyone throw you off. That is following your bliss.
If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living.
Wherever you are – if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that eternal life within you, all the time.
Follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open -- Joseph Campbell - The Power of Myth
There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action.
And because there is only one you in all time, this expression is unique.
And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium . . . the world will not have it.
It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how valuable, nor how it compares with other expressions.
It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open -- Martha Graham - Dance to the Piper
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life? -- Mary Oliver - "The Summer Day," New and Selected Poems
Those who have courage to love should have courage to suffer -- Anthony Trollope
There is no surer way of calling the worst out of anyone than that of taking their worst as being their true selves; no surer way of bringing out the best than by only accepting that as being true of them -- E. F. Benson
When God laughs at the soul and the soul laughs back at God, the persons of the Trinity are begotten. When the Father laughs at the Son and the Son laughs back at the Father, that laughter gives pleasure, that pleasure gives joy, that joy gives love, and that love is the Holy Spirit -- taken from the book, Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul by Tony Hendra
Save the world through prayer? I don’t think so. I’m going to save it through laughter -- taken from the book, Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul by Tony Hendra
What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing -- Aristotle
A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step -- Lao-tzu
To study is a good way to learn; to hear it is still a better way; to teach it is the best of all -- Erasmus
It often happens that the office of giving gives us the merit to receive -- St. Augustine
To achieve satisfaction in everything
Desire it in nothing.
To possess everything,
Desire to have nothing.
To be everything,
Desire to be nothing.
To know everything,
Desire to know nothing -- John of the Cross -- (As harsh as such words sound, they have captured people’s attention because they suggest something to do.)
Heaven is to be
in God at last made free -- Evelyn Underhill
Our responding to life’s unfairness with sympathy . . . may be the surest proof of all of God’s reality -- Rabbi Harold Kushner
I can resist everything but temptation -- Oscar Wilde
Let nothing disturb you;
Let nothing make you afraid;
All things pass;
But God is unchanging,
Patience is enough for everything.
You who have God lack nothing.
God alone is sufficient -- Teresa of Avila
God may be subtle, but malicious He is not -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quoted by Albert Einstein, when asked by the Dean of Letters & Science at Princeton, what phrase should be put over the main doors of the new Physics Building, in 1939, for students to ponder.
The job of priests with respect to the lay people is not to make them the longa manus of the clergy, telling them what they’ve got to do; but to make them believing men and women, adult Christians, leaving them to meet and fulfill the concrete demands of their Christianity on their own responsibility and in accordance with their own consciences -- Yves Congar
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds -- Albert Einstein
To sin by silence when they should protest, makes cowards of human beings -- Abraham Lincoln
Desire is to love as belief is to faith: each is a means to an end; each is so easily mistaken for the end -- Fenton Johnson
In humility is perfect freedom -- Thomas Merton
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves -- Rainer Maria Rilke
The exercise of authority without accountability is not servant-leadership: it is tyranny -- Report of the National Review Board
The Christian of the future will be a mystic or he will not exist at all -- Karl Rahner
One who loves God necessarily loves silence -- Thomas Merton
We have to earn silence . . . to work for it; to make it not an absence but a presence; not emptiness but repletion. Silence is something more than just a pause; it is that enchanted place where space is cleared and time is stayed and the horizon itself expands -- Pico Iyer
Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be -- Thomas A'Kempis
Life is like a roller coaster, so why not sit up in the front with your hands in the air? -- Rachel Crisp
When life gives you lemons, throw them back and say, "make your own lemonade!" -- Kayla Merrell, Brent Coburn, and Rachel Crisp
To study is a good way to learn; to hear it is still a better way; to teach it is the best of all -- Erasmus of Rotterdam
The only reward of virtue is virtue -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My subject is War
And the pity of War.
The poetry is in the pity . . .
All a poet can do today is warn -- Wilfred Owen, British Poet
There were millions tortured, shot,
Or starved long before Hitler.
This symphony is a tombstone to all.
If we all read from the Palms of David
before hearing the 7th symphony, [of Shostakovich]
There would be fewer stupid things -- Dimitri Shostakovich, Russian Composer
Music does not plead
for war’s end.
Music will illuminate war’s horror,
so that all who hear that music
will then demand war’s end -- Anonymous
Anger is only one letter short of danger.
Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people.
He, who loses money, loses much; He, who loses a friend, loses much more; He, who loses faith, loses all.
“When the great scorer comes
to mark against your name;
He’ll write not ‘won’ or ‘lost,’
But how you played the game.” -- Grantland Rice
I love thee for a heart that's kind—
Not for the knowledge in thy mind -- W. H. Davies
One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child -- Carl Gustav Jung
People pay the doctor for his trouble; for his kindness they still remain in his debt -- "the Younger" Seneca, Lucius Annaeus (4? BC - 65 AD)
One kind word can warm three winter months -- Anonymous Japanese proverb
The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket -- Author unknown
Hell is not so bad as the road that leads to it -- Yiddish Proverb
The road to hell is always in good repair because its users pay so dearly for its upkeep.
Nothing would be done at all if a man waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault with it -- John Henry Newman
If you haven't struck oil in your first three minutes, stop boring! -- George Jessel
Never look at the doors closing behind you or you'll miss the ones opening ahead -- Cyril Magnin
Of all the horrid, hideous notes of woe,
Sadder than owl-songs or the midnight blast,
Is that portentous phrase, "I told you so." -- Lord Byron
Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshiped -- Calvin Coolidge
If one only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished; but we wish to be happier than other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are -- Attributed to Charles Louis de Secondat Montesquieu
Great tranquility of heart is his who cares for neither praise nor blame -- Thomas A. Kempis
The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one -- Elbert Hubbard
Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly -- Langston Hughes
If you want to see the sun shine, you have to weather the storm -- Frank Lane
Patience is also a form of action -- Auguste Rodin
Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth thrown in. Aim at Earth and you get neither -- C.S. Lewis
I have lived to thank God that all my prayers have not been answered -- Jean Ingelow
Conscience is God's presence in man -- Emanuel Swedenborg
We must not give only what we have; we must give what we are -- Cardinal Mercia
Hope is faith holding out its hand in the dark -- George Iles
We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do -- Mother Teresa
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
It's important the people should know what you stand for. It's equally important that they know what you won't stand for -- Mary H. Waldrip
Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly -- St. Francis de Sales
In humility is perfect freedom — Thomas Merton
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves — Rainer Maria Rilke
We do not understand the meaning of prophetic imagination unless we see the connection between the religion of static triumphalism and the politics of oppression and exploitation — Walter Brueggemann
If the church does not subject itself to the judgment which is pronounced by the church, it becomes idolatrous towards itself. Such idolatry is its permanent temptation -- Paul Tillich
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds — Albert Einstein
The job of priests with respect to lay people is not to make them the longa manus [long arm] of the clergy, telling them what they’ve got to do; but to make them believing men and women, adult Christians, leaving them to meet and fulfill the concrete demands of their Christianity on their own responsibility and in accordance with their own consciences — Yves Congar
One who loves God necessarily loves silence — Thomas Merton
The Christian of the future will be a mystic or he will not exist at all — Karl Rahner
Absolute trust in God in the present and complete tranquility in regard to what is going to happen in the future — Anonymous
Only when the ego has been trampled underfoot can one be fully and truly free — Pope John XXIII
Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it stands than to anything on which it's poured -- Unknown
People who fight with fire usually end up with ashes -- Abigail Van Buren
What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do -- Aristotle
O, it is excellent to have a giant's strength, but it is tyrranous to use it like a giant -- Shakespeare
I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work the more of it I seem to have -- Coleman Cox
Most of us spend our lives as if we have another one in the bank -- Ben Irwin
I do not understand the mystery of grace--only that it meets us where we are, but does not leave us where it found us -- Anne LaMott
To make your children capable of honesty is the beginning of education -- John Ruskin
If you wish your merit to be known, acknowledge that of other people -- Oriental proverb
If I have learned one thing in this life, it is that God will not tie my shoes without me -- Doug Boyd
A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer; it sings because it has a song -- Maya Angelou
You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him -- Leo Aikman
One is taught by experience to put a premium on those few people who can appreciate you for what you are -- Gail Godwin
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power -- Abraham Lincoln
Self-discipline is when your conscience tells you to do something and you don't talk back -- W. K. Hope
Think you can, think you can't; either way, you'll be right -- Henry Ford
We probably wouldn't worry about what people think of us if we could know how seldom they do -- Olin Miller
Only you can be you. God designed each of us so there would be no duplication in the world. No one has the exact same mix of factors that make you unique. That means no one else on earth will ever be able to play the role God planned for you. If you don’t make your unique contribution to the Body of Christ, it won’t be made -- Rick Warren
Tough times never last, tough people do -- Robert Schuller
If the world is cold make it your business to build fires -- Horace Traubel
Good habits are as easy to form as bad ones -- Tim McCarver
It is the courage to ask the right questions that makes for moral character. It is the ability to ask the right questions that makes for scientific progress -- Joan Chittister
There are two kinds of people: those who do the work, and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group; there is less competition there -- Indira Gandhi
A loyal friend laughs at your jokes when they're not so good, and sympathizes with your problems when they're not so bad -- Arnold Glasgow
Sorrow is a fruit; God does not allow it to grow on a branch that is too weak to bear it -- Victor Hugo
The time to relax is when you don't have time for it -- Sydney J. Harris
If we would have new knowledge, we must get a whole world of new questions -- Susanne Langer
Judge a person by the questions they
ask rather than by the answers they give -- Voltaire
Life without a daily dream is not life at all. It is, at best, an excursion into boredom -- Joan Chittister
Reason can answer questions, but imagination has to ask them -- Ralph Gerard
God writes straight with crooked lines -- a Portuguese Proverb
People live forward but think backward -- Howard Bleichner
Inner peace and outer peace are synonymous in the sense that, without one, the other wouldn't happen -- Yoko Ono
The unexamined life is not worth living -- Socrates
If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties -- Francis Bacon
Fear is not a bad place to start a spiritual journey -- Kathleen Norris
No one has the right to sit down and feel hopeless. There’s too much to do — Dorothy Day
What do we live for if not to make life less difficult for each other? -- George Eliot
Snowflakes are one of nature's most fragile things, but just look what they can do when they stick together -- Vesta M. Kelly
Start by doing what's necessary, then what's possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible -- Saint Francis
Those who do not know how to weep with their whole heart don't know how to laugh either -- Golda Meir
Enthusiasm finds the opportunities, and energy makes the most of them -- Henry S. Haskins
Those that lose wealth, lose much; those that lose friends, lose more; but those that lose spirit, lose all -- Spanish proverb
Peace is not the absence of war. It is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition of benevolence, confidence, and justice -- Spinoza
I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed -- Booker T. Washington
In this life of illusion and quasi-illusion, the person of solid virtues who can be admired for something more substantial than his well-knownness often proves to be the unsung hero -- Daniel J. Boorstin
For the benefit of the flowers, we water the thorns, too -- Jewish saying
Those who don't know how to weep with their whole heart don't know how to laugh either -- Golda Meir
The pastor should visit the cemetery as often as he is able. This is wholesome for him personally, for his preaching, for his spiritual care, and also for his theology -- Bonhoeffer, Spiritual Care
The fickle-minded man is merely a witness to the constant border warfare between life and death . . . but the serious man has entered into a treaty of friendship with the opposing forces, and his life has in death’s earnest thought the most faithful of allies -- Soren Kierkegaard
The encounter with Jesus is fundamentally different from that with Goethe or Socrates . . . There are only two ways possible of encountering Jesus: man must die or he must put Jesus to death -- Bonhoeffer.
Advent is primarily about the coming of God, and only in a secondary way about our asking, seeking, waiting, and longing -- Maria Boulding
The monk is one who is separated from all, yet is united to all -- Evagrius Ponticos
The true Christian is one who becomes a sacrifice in order to call attention to the truth that Christ is the only true sacrifice -- Soren Kierkegaard
Those that lose wealth, lose much; those that lose friends, lose more; but those that lose spirit, lose all -- Spanish proverb
Life engenders life. Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich -- Sarah Bernhardt
I have learned that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours -- Henry David Thoreau
I have one life and one chance to make it count for something. I am free to choose what that something is, and the something I have chosen is my faith. Now, my faith goes beyond theology and religion and requires considerable work and effort. My faith demands that this is not optional, that I do whatever I can, whenever I can, wherever I am, for as long as I can, with whatever I have, to try to make a difference -- Jimmy Carter
Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul. Where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless -- Eric Hoffer
Humble persons know what they are and what they aren't, what they have and what they don't have, and they never confuse the two -- Joan Chittister
He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils -- Francis Bacon
When a person has compassion for all living creatures, only then are they noble -- Buddha
Ideals do not determine what we do to make a living in life; they govern what we become as we do it -- Joan Chittister
It is not without reason that the ancestors and prophets wanted nothing else to be associated as closely with the Word of God as music -- Martin Luther
Let us sing now, not in order to enjoy a life of leisure, but in order to lighten your labors. You should sing as wayfarers do — sing, but continue your journey. Do not be lazy, but sing to make your journey more enjoyable. Sing, but keep going -- St. Augustine
If it is true that the Holy Spirit is peace of soul. . .and if anger is disturbance of the heart . . . then there is no greater obstacle to the presence of the Spirit in us than anger -- John Climacus
Pain — is missed — in Praise -- Emily Dickinson
The significance of human beings does not lie in what we attain but rather in what we long to attain -- Kahlil Gibran
We need the kind of vision that tells us when to stop something as well as when to begin something -- Joan Chittister
If you're planning for one year, grow rice.
If you're planning for 20 years, grow trees.
If you're planning for centuries, grow leaders -- Chinese proverb
If you're planning for one year, grow rice.
If you're planning for 20 years, grow trees.
If you're planning for centuries, grow leaders
If you're planning for eternity, go to confession -- Australian proverb
As I grow older, I pay less attention to what people say. I just watch what they do -- Andrew Carnegie
Security is a superstition--it does not exist in nature. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure -- Helen Keller
Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it! Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it -- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Surround yourself with optimists; negativity is not a sounding board for creativity -- Karl Mettke
Sex has become one of the most discussed subjects of modern times. The Victorians pretended it does not exist; the moderns pretend that nothing else exists -- Bishop Fulton Sheen
A life spent centering only on itself will in the end occupy a very, very small universe -- Former Senator John Glenn
If you're planning for one year, grow rice.
If you're planning for 20 years, grow trees.
If you're planning for centuries, grow leaders -- Chinese proverb
Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem to be more afraid of life than death -- James F. Byrnes
Let your hook always be cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish -- Ovid
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm -- Winston Churchill
The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them -- Mark Twain
Forgiveness is not forgetting; it has more to do with how something is remembered. It’s not remembered with bitterness -- Rev. Douglas R. Baker
There is a slowness in affairs which ripens them, and a slowness which rots them -- Joseph Roux (Meditations of a Parish Priest)
We are all pilgrims on the wearisome roads of our life. There is always something ahead of us that we have not yet overtaken. When we do catch up with something it immediately becomes an injunction to leave it behind us and go onwards. Every end becomes a beginning -- Karl Rahner, S.J. (Meditations and Prayers)
The value of life does not depend upon the place we occupy. It depends upon the way we occupy that place -- St. Therese of Lisieux
One moment of patience may ward off great disaster. One moment of impatience may ruin a whole life -- Chinese proverb
We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world -- Helen Keller
When we have inner peace, we can be at peace with those around us -- The Dalai Lama
You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean become dirty, the ocean does not become dirty -- Mohandas K. Gandhi
We are learning a great many clever things. The next great task will be to learn not to do them -- G.K. Chesterton
When we yield to discouragement or despair it is usually because we give too much thought to the past and to the future -- St. Therese of Lisieux
Better one word less than one word too many -- Maltese Proverb
All knowledge is sterile which does not lead to action and end in charity — Cardinal Desire Joseph Mercier
The law of life is sacrifice and discipline — Christopher Dawson
The first step in personhood is to allow ourselves to be loved. To know ourselves loved is to have the depths of our own capacity to love opened up -- John Main, O.S.B.
Where there is no love, put love — and you will find love. — St. John of the Cross
Don’t lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset — St. Francis De Sales
Make no judgements where you have no compassion -- Anne McCaffrey
One who feels no compassion will become insane -- Hasidic saying
The grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for -- Allan Chalmers
Setting a goal is not the main thing. It's deciding how you will go about achieving it, and staying with that plan -- Tom Landry
To safeguard democracy the people must have a keen sense of independence, self-respect, and their oneness -- Mohandas K. Gandhi
As long as the differences and diversities of mankind exist, democracy must allow for compromise, for accommodation, and for the recognition of differences -- Eugene McCarthy
There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings -- Hodding Carter
Consciously or unconsciously we all strive to make the kind of a world we like -- Oliver Wendell Holmes
We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way -- Viktor Frankl
Make happy those who are near, and those who are far will come -- Proverb, source unknown
He who wishes to secure the good of others has already secured his own -- Confucius
One of the oldest human needs is having someone wonder where you are when you don't come home at night -- Margaret Mead
Our grand business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand -- Thomas Carlyle
Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity -- Edwin Hubbel Chapin
You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; in just the same way, you learn to love by loving -- St. Francis De Sales
Don't let yesterday use up too much of today -- Will Rogers
The world always steps aside for people and organizations who know where they're going -- Miriam Larsen
You win not by chance, but by preparation -- Roger Maris
A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject -- Winston Churchill
To say nothing, especially when speaking, is half the art of diplomacy -- Will Durant
We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them -- Kahlil Gibran
Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity -- General George Patton
When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall -- think of it, ALWAYS -- Mohandas K. Gandhi
I was waiting for you to wash me. And look at what happened. Who will wash me now? -- Mulkhia Dhakhel, preparing a daughter's body for burial after a bombing in Iraq
The road to success is always under construction -- Author Unknown
To be able under all circumstances to practice five things constitutes perfect virtue. These five things are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness -- Confucius
If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion -- The Dalai Lama
Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens -- Jimi Hendrix
The most important thing in life is to have a focus and a purpose -- Marcus Aurelius
That is the first important clue to your life design -- the discovery of what you'll be happiest doing -- Barbara Sher
If you don't believe in miracles, you'll never see one. If you believe in miracles, you'll see them all the time -- Albert Einstein
In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith. Like medicine, the test of its value is not in its taste, but in its effects -- J. William Fulbright
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven? -- Kahlil Gibran
The diameter of each day is measured by the stretch of thought - not by the rising and setting of the sun -- Henry Ward Beecher
Perfectionism is the enemy of creation, as extreme self-solitude is the enemy of well-being -- John Updike
The author Robert Louis Stevenson had great difficulty with illness in
his short life. One day, his wife came into the room where he was
coughing and said, "I suppose you will tell me that it's a glorious
day." Stevenson replied that's precisely what he'd planned to say.
Seeing the sunlight stream through his bedroom window, he explained: "I
refuse to let a row of medicine bottles be the circumference of my
horizon.”
All knowledge used to promote injustice should be called cunning rather than wisdom. And so a spirit willing to face danger, if it is moved by selfishness and not by desire for the common good, may be styled bold, but it is not courageous -- Plato
Virtue is that which makes men fight for the right -- Stoic Philosophers
Counsel, conversation, encouragement, consolation, sometimes even criticism are found at their best among friends -- Cicero
Whoever sets a wanderer on his way
Is like a man who lights a lamp from his.
His own shines no less bright for lighting that -- Ennius
The more clearly a person perceives the essential truth in any matter and the more quickly and accurately he can see and explain the reason for it, the wiser and more farsighted he will be considered -- Cicero
We are, as Plato beautifully says, born not for ourselves alone. Our country claims a share in our existence, and our friends a share. . . .The whole produce of the earth was created for the use of men, and men themselves are here for the sake of their fellow men that they may mutually assist one another -- Cicero
Good “faith” is so called because through it a promise becomes a fact -- Cicero
One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory -- Rita Mae Brown
Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads -- Henry David Thoreau
Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way -- Viktor Frankl
My hope for my children must be that they respond to the still, small voice of God in their own hearts -- Andrew Young
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Cowardice asks the question - is it safe?
Expediency asks the question - is it politic?
Vanity asks the question - is it popular?
But conscience asks the question - is it right?
And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular;
but one must take it because it is right -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Retirement has many advantages. It becomes a time to remake one’s soul, to interiorize, to mediate and begin a cram course for the final exam -- Fulton J. Sheen
Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous -- Confucius
Laugh as much as possible. Always laugh; it is the sweetest thing one can do for oneself and one's fellow human being -- Maya Angelou
We cannot really love anybody with whom we never laugh -- Agnes Repplier
Conquer your foe by force, you increase his enmity; conquer by love, and you will reap no after-sorrow -- Fo-Sho-Hing-Tsan-King
If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished? -- Jalaluddin Rumi
Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike -- John Muir
While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart -- Francis of Assisi
Silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better than any
speech -- Plutarch
Under all speech that is good for anything there lies a silence
that is better, Silence is deep as Eternity; speech is shallow as
Time -- Carlyle
Silence is the only language God speaks. Everything else
is a bad translation -- Unknown
Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier. The way it actually works is in reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want -- Margaret Young
Don't be afraid to go out on a limb. That's where the fruit is -- H. Jackson Browne
Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one -- Eleanor Roosevelt
The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew -- Abraham Lincoln
The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall -- Nelson Mandela
If you're going through hell, keep going -- Winston Churchill
It is hard to free fools from chains they revere -- Voltaire
You don't drown by falling in the water; you drown by staying there -- Edwin Louis Cole
When people ask me, "What do you do?" I say I create crisis, because crisis is that edge where change is possible -- Lisa Fithian
Any idiot can face a crisis. It's the day-to-day living that wears you out -- Anton Chekhov
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others -- Cicero
Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing -- Abraham Lincoln
The world is a dangerous place to be not because of the people who do evil; but because of the people who stand by and let them -- Albert Einstein
You only have power over people as long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a person of everything he's no longer in your power -- he's free again -- Alexander Solzhenitsyn
To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others -- Nelson Mandela
I am not what I ought to be.
I am not what I want to be.
I am not what I hope to be.
But still, I am not what I used to be.
And by the grace of God, I am what I am -- John Newton
How old would you be if you didn't know how old you were?
You know you are getting old when everything either dries up or leaks.
Long ago when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks, it was called witchcraft. Today, it's called golf.
Whenever I am brokenhearted I emerge more compassionate -- Sylvia Boorstein
Pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding -- Kahlil Gibran
The essence of immorality is the tendency to make an exception of myself -- Jane Addams
The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for -- Simone de Beauvoir
Time, which changes people, does not alter the image we have retained of them -- Marcel Proust
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion -- The Dalai Lama
Symptoms of disease are nothing but a disguised manifestation of the power of love; and all disease is only love transformed -- Thomas Mann
The best that an individual can do is to concentrate on what he or she can do, in the course of a burning effort to do it better -- Elizabeth Bowen
I can't understand why people are frightened by new ideas. I'm frightened of old ones -- John Cage
Discourage conformity, uniformity, and centralization because they stifle innovation -- Principles of Excellent Installations, U.S. Department of Defense
Habits are like a cable. We weave a strand of it every day and soon it cannot be broken -- Horace Mann
We cannot really love anybody with whom we never laugh -- Agnes Repplier
Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on -- Bob Newhart
Nothing but self-will can separate us from God -- Saint Alphonsus Ligouri
It is not hard to obey when we love the one whom we obey -- Saint Ignatius of Loyola
It is a form of trade, you see. I ask God for souls and pay
Him by giving up everything else -- Saint John Bosco
To be criticized, denounced, and despised by good men,
by our own friends and relatives is a severe test of virtue -- Saint Frances de Sales
Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and
a glass of wine -- Saint Thomas Aquinas
God commands you to pray, but He forbids you to worry -- Saint John Vianney
Learn to hate your faults, but to hate them calmly -- Saint (Padre) Pio
To sin is human, but to persist in sin is devilish -- Saint Catherine of Siena
Even if you are committing mortal sins, keep on
praying, and I guarantee you will reach the harbor
of salvation -- Saint Teresa of Avila
He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose -- James Elliot
Cautious, careful people always casting about to preserve their reputation or social standards never can bring about reform. Those who are really in earnest are willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathies with despised ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences -- Susan B. Anthony
Hate has a reason for everything, but love is unreasonable -- V. Raiuhes Ahaefuthe
We learn neither by thinking or by doing.
We learn by thinking about what we are doing -- Anonymous
Begin at once to live, and count each day as a separate life -- Seneca
There is a desire within eacho of us, in the deep center of ourselves that we call our heart. We were born with it, it is never completely satisfied, and it never dies . . . Our true identity, our reason for being, is to be found in this desire -- Gerald May
It's not that we have desire, we are desire -- John Eldredge
The damage of abandoned desire is a life lost unto itself -- John Eldredge
We are half hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite joy is offered us. Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased -- C.S. Lewis
Delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart -- Psalm 37:4
When I no more can stir my soul to move, and life is but the ashes of a fire.
When I can but remember that my heart once used to live and love, long and aspire --- wake in me boundless desire -- George Mac Donald
We cannot escape fear. We can only transform it into a companion that accompanies us on all our exciting adventures -- Susan Jeffers
Take a risk a day -- a one small or bold stroke that will make you feel great once you have done it -- Susan Jeffers
You cannot see wisdom, but you can see its reflection. Its reflection is happiness, fearlessness, and kindness -- Sylvia Boorstein
It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult -- Seneca
All you need to do to receive guidance is to ask for it and then listen -- Sanaya Roman
Slow down and enjoy life. It’s not only the scenery you miss by going too fast – you also miss the sense of where you are going and why -- Eddie Cantor
Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose -- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music – the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself -- Henry Miller
I shut my eyes in order to see -- Paul Gauguin
To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive -- Robert Louis Stevenson
True education consists of forming the hearts of young people. Knowledge and scholarship have meaning only when placed in a context of values -- Father Basil Moreau, founder of Holy Cross
For the kingdom to come in this world, disciples must have the competence to see and the courage to act, which is a call to do as Jesus did, working for justice through loving service to the poor -- Constitution 2, Article 14 of the Congregation of Holy Cross Brothers
A soft answer turns away anger -- Proverbs Chapter 15 verse 1
Loyalty to a petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a
human soul -- Mark Twain
Time, which changes people, does not alter the image we have retained of them -- Marcel Proust
Whoever knows he is deep, strives for clarity; whoever would like to appear deep to the crowd, strives for obscurity. For the crowd considers anything deep if only it cannot see to the bottom: the crowd is so timid and afraid of going into the water -- Friedrich Nietzsche
Ultimately, the only power to which a person should aspire is that which one exercises over oneself -- Elie Wiesel
Once you accept your own death, all of a sudden you are free to live -- Saul Alinsky
When the solution is simple, God is answering -- Albert Einstein
Truth never damages a cause that is just -- Mahatma Gandhi
Sooner or later I'm going to die, but I'm not going to retire -- Margaret Mead
Old age is like flying through a storm. Once you're aboard, there's nothing you can do -- Golda Meir
There may be a hundred things you know about a person--all of them bad. But there may be just one thing you don't know, which if you did know, would completely change your opinion -- Robert H. Lauren
If you look carefully you will see that there is one thing and only one thing that causes unhappiness. The name of that thing is Attachment. What is an attachment? An emotional state of clinging caused by the belief that without some particular thing or some person you cannot be happy -- Anthony de Mello
Pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding -- Kahlil Gibran
For we are made for happiness and any one who is completely happy has a right to say to himself, "I am doing God's will on earth." All the righteous, all saints, all the holy martyrs were happy -- Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
For the saints, suffering continues to be suffering, but it ceases to be an obstacle to his mission, or to his happiness, both of which are found positively and concretely in the will of God -- Thomas Merton
Sit at dinner tables and socialize as long as you can, for these are the bonus times of your lives -- al-Hasan bin Ali bin Abi-Talib
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed -- Einstein (1879-1955)
Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain, and most fools do -- Benjamin Franklin
Nothing sets a person so much out of the devil’s reach as humility -- Jonathan Edwards
Life will bring you pain all by itself. Your responsibility is to create joy -- Milton Erickson, M.D.
It seems to me that we often, almost sulkily, reject the good that God offers us because, at the moment, we expected some other good -- C.S. Lewis
If we take people as they are, we make worse. If we treat them as if they were what they ought to be, we help them to become what they are capable of becoming -- Goethe
If one finds in one or two words matter which yields thought, relish and consolation, one should not be anxious to move forward, even if the whole hour is consumed on what is being found -- St. Ignatius
We must take care to live not merely a long life, but a full one; for living a long life requires only good fortune, but living a full live requires character -- Seneca
If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate -- Thomas Watson, Sr.
There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way -- Wayne Dyer
I always prefer to believe the best of everybody; it saves so much trouble -- Rudyard Kipling
We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
The wisest person knows he knows nothing -- Socrates
It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one -- George Washington
We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people, claims, and petitions. We may pass them by, preoccupied with more important tasks . . . When we do that, we pass by the visible sign of opportunity raised in our path to show us that, not our way, but God’s way must be done. It is a strange fact that people frequently consider their work so important and urgent that they will allow nothing to disturb them. They think they are doing God a service in this, but actually they are disdaining God’s ‘crooked yet straight path.’ But it is a part of the discipline of humility that we must not spare our hand where it can perform a service and that we do not assume that our schedule is our own to manage, but allow it to be arranged by God -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian, murdered by the Nazis during WWII
If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything -- Mark Twain
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power -- Abraham Lincoln
The significant problems we face can never be solved at the level
of thinking that created them -- Albert Einstein
Good sense eludes the overhasty pen -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The meaning of life is discovering our gifts.
The purpose of life is giving them away -- Unknown
Books are the carriers of civilization.
Without books history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill.
They are the engines of change, windows on the world (as a poet said) lighthouses erected in the sea of time.
They are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind.
Books are humanity in print -- Barbara W. Tuckman
Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced – James Baldwin
You must do the thing you think you cannot do – Eleanor Roosevelt
When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us – Helen Keller
People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them – George Bernard Shaw
Every time I stepped on the field, I believed my team was going to walk off the winner, somehow, some way – Roger Staubach
One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Most High glorious God,
Enlighten the darkness of my heart.
Give me right faith, sure hope and perfect charity.
Fill me with understanding and knowledge,
That I may fulfill your commands -- St. Francis of Assisi
Education is an admirable thing. But it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught -- Oscar Wilde
Listen or your tongue will keep you deaf -- Native American saying
A baby is God's opinion that the world should go on -- Carl Sandburg
Start by doing what's necessary, then do what's possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible -- St. Francis of Assisi
Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity -- General George S. Patton
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, "Certainly I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it -- Theodore Roosevelt
There is no future in any job. The future lies in the man who holds the job -- George Crane
No man desires anything so eagerly as God desires to bring men to the knowledge of Himself. God is always ready, but we are very unready. |
