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Augustus William Hare: Two pieces of dead wood
“The cross was two pieces of dead wood; and a helpless, unresisting Man was nailed to it; yet it was mightier than the world, and triumphed, and will ever triumph over it.” —Augustus William Hare.
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Lawrence Durrell: Jokey way
“We should tackle reality in a slightly jokey way, otherwise we miss its point. “ —Lawrence Durrell, novelist, poet, and playwright (1912-1990).
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David Starr Jordan: Wisdom, skill and virtue
“Wisdom is knowing what to do next; Skill is knowing how to do it, and Virtue is doing it. ” —David Starr Jordan.
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Mahatma Gandhi: Just and unjust
“A weak man is just by accident. A strong but non-violent man is unjust by accident. ” —Mahatma Gandhi
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Robert Green Ingersoll: Justice
“The triumph of justice is the only peace.” —Robert Green Ingersoll.
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Bernard Berenson: Consistency
“Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago. ” — Bernard Berenson
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Earl Warren: Spirit and form
“It is the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive. ” Earl Warren
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Voltaire: Crime and fear
“Fear follows crime and is its punishment. ” —Voltaire.
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John Naisbitt: New leader
“The new leader is a facilitator, not an order giver. ” John Naisbitt
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Indira Gandhi: Actively repose
“You must be still in the midst of activity, and be vibrantly alive in repose.” Indira Gandhi
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Reinhold Niebuhr: Democracy and justice
“Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary. ” —Reinhold Niebuhr.
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Albert Einstein: Life
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” —Albert Einstein.
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Giuseppe Antonio Borgese: Necessary and possible
“It is necessary; therefore, it is possible.” —Giuseppe Antonio Borgese, Italian writer.
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Seneca: Progress
“ The greater part of progress is the desire to progress. ” — Seneca.
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Lauren Fleshman: Failure
When you recognize that failing doesn’t make you a failure, you give yourself permission to try all sorts of things. Lauren Fleshman, American track and field athlete
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William Irwin Thompson: Destiny and fate
“If you do not create your destiny, you will have your fate inflicted upon you. ” —William Irwin Thompson
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Ryan Hall: Running
“I actually think being a more balanced person makes a healthier, happier, and thus faster person. The question I try and ask myself when I consider whether or not to train more is what is my body craving and what is my body ready to absorb? Sometimes pushing harder is not the answer. It takes…
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Mary Karr: Memoirs
Memoir is not an act of history but an act of memory, which is innately corrupt. -Mary Karr, (b. 1955) poet and memoirist
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Tyron Edwards: Censure and self-praise
“Most of our censure of others is only oblique praise of self, uttered to show the wisdom and superiority of the speaker. It has all the insidiousness of self-praise, and all the ill-desert of falsehood.” Tyron Edwards
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Patricia Sun: Heaven and hell
“There is only one thing keeping us from having heaven on earth: we can’t believe it! Why? Because we don’t want to be wrong – so we’ll be right and make it hell! ” ––Patricia Sun
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Anton Chekhov: Corporal punishment
It is not only the prisoners who grow coarse and hardened from corporal punishment, but those as well who perpetrate the act or are present to witness it. -Anton Chekhov, short-story writer and dramatist (1860-1904)
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Zelda Fitzgerald: Loose ends
“It is the loose ends with which men hang themselves.” — Zelda Fitzgerald, American writer
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Philips Brooks: Best advisers
“The best advisers, helpers and friends, always are not those who tell us how to act in special cases, but who give us out of themselves, the ardent spirit and desire to act right, and leave us then, even through many blunders, to find out what our form of right action is.” ~Philips Brooks. Embed…
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George Santayana: Language
“Language is like money, without which specific relative values may well exist and be felt, but cannot be reduced to a common denominator.” —George Santayana, philosopher (1863-1952).
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Traveling talent
A fellow of mediocre talent will remain a mediocrity, whether he travels or not; but one of superior talent (which without impiety I cannot deny that I possess) will go to seed if he always remains in the same place. -Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer and musician (1756-1791)
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Don Bosco: Prayer
“Prayer is to the soul as heat is to the body.” ~Don Bosco
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Bernard Mandeville: Laziness defined
“We seldom call anybody lazy, but such as we reckon inferior to us, and of whom we expect some service.” — Bernard Mandeville, Dutch philosopher
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William Shakespeare: Nobler?
“To be or not to be — whether ’tis is nobler in the mind to suffer…or take up arms against a sea of troubles?” ~William Shakespeare
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Bertrand Russell: Toothily verified
Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by examining his wives’ mouths. ~Bertrand Russell
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Herbert Read: Progress
“Progress is measured by the degree of differentiation within a society. ” Herbert Read
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James Thurber: Of glows and glares
There are two kinds of light — the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures. -James Thurber, writer and cartoonist (1894-1961)
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Franklin D. Roosevelt: Freedom
In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved. ~Franklin D. Roosevelt, Speech, September 22, 1936 32nd president of US (1882 – 1945)
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Ludwig Börne: Goodwill
Goodwill is the one and only asset that competition cannot undersell or destroy.” — Ludwig Börne, German political writer and satirist.
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James Baldwin: Society
Society is held together by our need; we bind it together with legend, myth, coercion, fearing that without it we will be hurled into that void, within which, like the earth before the Word was spoken, the foundations of society are hidden. —James Baldwin
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Calvin Coolidge: The said hurt
I have never been hurt by what I have not said.” — Calvin Coolidge, 30th U.S. president
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Jeffrey Gitomer: Lions and gazelles
“Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle —…
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Mahatma Gandhi: Prayer
Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart. —Mahatma Gandhi
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Rainer Maria Rilke: Find the words
“Do not assume that she who seeks to comfort you now, lives untroubled among the simple and quiet words that sometimes do you good. Her life may also have much sadness and difficulty, that remains far beyond yours. Were it otherwise, she would never have been able to find these words.” Rainer Maria Rilke
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Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield: Self-conversation
“If a man would allot half an hour every night for self-conversation, and recapitulate with himself whatever he has done, right or wrong, in the course of the day, he would be both the better and the wiser for it.” —Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield
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Theodore Isaac Rubin: Beginning of wisdom
Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom. Theodore Isaac Rubin
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Albert Camus: Invincible summer
“In the depths of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer. ” — Albert Camus
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Francis Bacon: Fooling the devil?
People have discovered that they can fool the devil; but they can’t fool the neighbors.” — Francis Bacon, British writer and statesman.
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Sri Chinmoy: Hate and love
“You can only hate someone whom you have the capacity to love, because if you are really indifferent, you cannot even get up the enough energy to hate him. ” Sri Chinmoy
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Charlotte Bronte: Tranquility and action
“It is vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility; they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it. ” Charlotte Bronte
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Charles de Montesquieu: Tyranny
“There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice. ” ~Charles de Montesquieu
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Timothy Garton Ash: Survival of liberty
“The key to the survival of liberty in the modern world is the embrace of multiple identities. ” Timothy Garton Ash
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Bill Watterson: More to this world
“There’s more to this world than just people you know.” ~Bill Watterson in “Calvin and Hobbes”.
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Mason Cooley: Promises and disappearing people
Magic trick: to make people disappear, ask them to fulfill their promises. ~Mason Cooley
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E.M. Forster: Spoon feeding
Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon.” — E.M. Forster, British writer
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Bill Hybels: Cross, not a crown
God led Jesus to a cross, not a crown, and yet that cross ultimately proved to be the gateway to freedom and forgiveness for every sinner in the world. God also asks us as Jesus’ followers to carry a cross. Paradoxically, in carrying that cross, we find liberty and joy and fulfillment. Bill Hybels WillowCreekCommunityChurch
