Gratitude is a vaccine, an antitoxin, and an antiseptic. (John Henry Jowett, 19th-20th century British preacher and author) Is it true that a grateful heart will protect you or overcome something that might be hurtful? It would be wise, then, to develop a constant...
I have never been hurt by what I did not say. (Calvin Coolidge, 30th president of the United States) Although Coolidge was known to be a skilled and effective public speaker, in private he was sometimes referred to as “Silent Cal,” a man of few words. With 24/7 TV...
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the commonplace simple, awesomely simple, that is creativity. (Charles Mingus, musician) Have you ever sat in a class when you wondered what the teacher was getting at? It seemed so complicated that you didn’t...
Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. (Winston Churchill, British leader during World War II) No one likes to fail or be involved in failure of any kind. Churchill’s experience in war included failure after failure—battles lost, plans...
Without pain . . . there is no way of life (Angelina Jolie, actress and humanitarian) “Without pain,” she says, “there would be no suffering, without suffering we would never learn from our mistakes.” That’s probably not what we want to hear. We’d rather there were no...
You never really learn much from hearing yourself talk. (George Clooney, actor) Most people seem to take pleasure in talking. Conversation is one of life’s most enjoyable enterprises. But we don’t like it much when someone monopolizes the discussion. It’s even worse...
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imagined. (Henry David Thoreau, 19th century American essayist and philosopher) Thoreau’s thought is expressed another way by a 21st century music star, Ella Fitzgerald: “Just don’t give up trying to...
Truth without grace is just condemnation; grace without truth is mere license. (James Emery White, preacher and author) Confronting a family member or friend about his or her improper conduct or attitude can be a really critical moment. As White suggests, we need to...
We become like that which we love. (Late Catholic Bishop Fulton Sheen) Is it true that people begin to look like their pets? It’s probably just a joke, but there is some truth to what Bishop Sheen says. Over the years of marriage couples do begin to think and act...
Most of us can read the writing on the wall; we just assume it's addressed to someone else. (T. S. Elliot, late British essayist) “The writing on the wall” is a biblical phrase that foretold doom for a nation that had subjugated God’s people and desecrated His sacred...
Most of our suspicions of others are aroused by our knowledge of ourselves. (Quoted by Kary Oberbrunner, motivational author and speaker) That statement is a bit unsettling. But is it true? Do we question the actions or motivations of other people because we sense...
Adversity reveals genius; prosperity covers it up. (Roger Staubach, former football star) Anyone who stars in competitive professional sports, as Staubach did, has faced lots of physical and mental adversity. Staubach demonstrated brilliance in handling those...