Sympathy Anybody can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend's success. (Oscar Wilde, 19th century Irish poet and playwright) Think about it! Most of us will genuinely sorrow with a friend who is...
A Simple Life Finding a way to live the simple life is one of life's supreme complications. (T. S. Eliot, one of the 20th century’s major poets) You may have neighbors whose religious convictions call for living a simple life. It may be difficult, but they do without...
Bitterness Bitterness is an acid that destroys its own container. (Adrian Rogers, radio preacher) It frightening to know that the gastric acids in our stomachs can eat through wood and small pieces of metal. It’s comforting to know, however, that those acids destroy...
Do Good Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good. (Minor Myers, professor) You might well expect to hear a commencement speaker encourage the graduates to “Go into the world and do well.” With all their new knowledge and...
Hard Work I don’t like to write, but I like having written. (Frank Norris, 19th century journalist) Maybe it’s not writing you dislike; maybe it’s the daily grind of your job. You don’t like the work (mental or physical) and you don’t enjoy the long hours; but you do...
Planning Envisioning our ideal next stage of life is an essential part of healthy aging. And the best way to actually achieve that ideal is to plan for it. (Maridel Reyes, writer and editor) It often seems like bad things just happen; we don’t have to plan for them....
Advancement If I have to choose, I will . . . take the less dynamic, indeed even the lazy person, who knows what’s right, than the zealot in the cause of error. (Antonin Scalia, late U.S. Supreme Court justice) Scalia continues: “He may move slower, but he’s headed...
What's Missing? We have too much to live with and too little to live for. (Os Guinness, English author and social critic.) On your next exercise walk, take a look in the open garages of your neighbors. What’s missing? In some of them, you’ll see lots of “stuff” but no...
Success I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure--It is: to please everybody. (Herbert Bayard Swope, journalist) Everyone wants to be successful. Libraries are full of books intended to help readers achieve their goals....
Character Brains are like muscles. You can rent them by the hour. The only thing that is not for sale is character. (Salvatore Eugene Scalia, late college professor) As a teacher, Scalia certainly recognized the value of using your brains. He was in the business of...
Learning The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take that away from you. (B. B. King, late American musician) Whether it’s by rote memorization, word association, or oral transmission—the beautiful thing about learning, as King reminds us, is that if...
Learning from Mistakes Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes; art is knowing which ones to keep (Scott Adams, comic strip writer and author) No one likes to make mistakes, but we all should admit that we can learn a lot from them. It’s also true that no one...