Quotes for January 2005

A person who loves people creates…

· 31 January 2005

A person who loves community tends to destroy it. But a person who loves people creates community wherever he goes.

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

« πλ | Community »

To be made a healer…

· 30 January 2005

St. Francis of Assisi taught me that there is a wound in the Creation and that the greatest use we could make of our lives was to ask to be made a healer of it.

— Alan Paton

« πλ | Spirituality »

A third way…

· 29 January 2005

Without the knowledge of our wretchedness, the knowledge of God creates pride. With it, the knowledge of God creates despair. The knowledge of Christ offers a third way, because in him we find both God and our wretchedness.

— Blaise Pascal, Pensees

« πλ | Hope »

Separateness is like a prison…

· 28 January 2005

We are part of the whole which we call the universe, but it is an optical delusion of our mind that we think we are separate. This separateness is like a prison for us. Our job is to widen the circle of compassion so we feel connected to all people and all situations.

— Albert Einstein

« πλ | Community, Spirituality »

A deep comforting sense…

· 27 January 2005

It gives me a deep comforting sense that ‘things seen are temporal and things unseen are eternal.’

— Helen Keller

« πλ | Faith, Hope »

Windstorms of life…

· 26 January 2005

To love means never to be afraid of the windstorms of life: should you shield the canyons from the windstorms you would never see the true beauty of their carvings.

— Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

« πλ | Joy, Love, Suffering »

More company increases happiness…

· 25 January 2005

More company increases happiness, but does not lighten or diminish misery.

— Thomas Traherne

« πλ | Joy, Proverb, Suffering »

This moment exhibits infinite space…

· 24 January 2005

This moment exhibits infinite space, but there is a space also wherein all moments are infinitely exhibited, and the everlasting duration of infinite space is another region and room of joys.

— Thomas Traherne

« πλ | Joy, Spirituality »

Love is the true means…

· 23 January 2005

Love is the true means by which the world is enjoyed: our love to others, and others love to us.

— Thomas Traherne

« πλ | Love »

Once our hearts get broken…

· 22 January 2005

Once our hearts get broken, they never fully heal. They always ache. But perhaps a broken heart is a more loving instrument. Perhaps only after our hearts have cracked wide open, have finally and totally unclenched, can we truly know love without boundaries.

— Fred Epstein

« πλ | Love »

Be sensible of your wants…

· 21 January 2005

Be sensible of your wants, that you maybe sensible of your treasures.

— Thomas Traherne, from First Century, #45

« πλ | Proverb »

Modern culture is nothing but…

· 20 January 2005

Modern persons will never find rest for their restless hearts without Christ, for modern culture is nothing but the wasteland from which the gods have departed, and so this restlessness has become its own deity; and, deprived of the shelter of the sacred and the consoling myths of sacrifice, the modern person must wander or drift, vainly attempting one or another accommodation with death, never escaping anxiety or ennui, and driven as a result to a ceaseless labor of distraction, or acquisition, or willful idiocy. And, where it works its sublimest magic, our culture of empty spectacle can so stupefy the intellect as to blind it to its own disquiet, and induce a spiritual torpor more deplorable than mere despair.

— David B. Hart, from “Christ and Nothing”

« πλ | Religion »

The gospel of a God found in…

· 19 January 2005

The gospel of a God found in broken flesh, humility, and measureless charity has defeated all the old lies, rendered the ancient order visibly insufficient and even slightly absurd, and instilled in us a longing for transcendent love so deep that—if once yielded to—it will never grant us rest anywhere but in Christ.

— David B. Hart, from “Christ and Nothing”

« πλ | Longing, Religion »

Our happiest times are…

· 18 January 2005

Our happiest times are those in which we forget ourselves, usually in being kind to someone else. That tiny moment of self-abdication is an act of true humility: the man who loses himself finds himself and finds his happiness.

— Fulton J. Sheen

« πλ | Identity »

Because It’s Right

· 17 January 2005

On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, “Is it safe?” Expediency asks the question, “Is it politic?” And Vanity comes along and 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 he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right.

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

« πλ | Character, Virtue »

The early bird…

· 16 January 2005

The early bird may get the worm, but it’s the second mouse what gets the cheese.

— Author unknown [via]

« πλ | Observation »

What we do…

· 15 January 2005

What we do (or don’t do) doesn’t tell us how much God is going to love us, it tells us how much we love Him.

Fr. Jim Tucker

« πλ | Love »

Boredom comes not from…

· 14 January 2005

Boredom comes not from reality but from people who are only half alive.

— Thomas Dubay, from Prayer Primer

« πλ | Suffering »

You can recognize truth by…

· 13 January 2005

You can recognize truth by its beauty and simplicity.

— Richard Feynman

« πλ | Truth »

If you don’t behave as you believe…

· 12 January 2005

If you don’t behave as you believe, you will end by believing as you behave.

— Fulton J. Sheen [via]

« πλ | Character »

Prayer always works to…

· 11 January 2005

Prayer always works to transform us into what God wants us to be. Not what we want to be.

« πλ | Prayer »

Faith goes up the stairs…

· 10 January 2005

Faith goes up the stairs that love builds and looks out windows which hope has opened.

— C.H. Spurgeon

« πλ | Faith »

The greatest weakness…

· 9 January 2005

The greatest weakness of most humans is their hesitancy to tell others how much they love them while they’re still alive.

— O.A. Battista

« πλ | Love »

Love does not consist…

· 8 January 2005

Love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking together in the same direction.

— Antoine de Saint-Exupery

« πλ | Love »

Being deeply loved…

· 7 January 2005

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.

— Lao Tzu

« πλ | Love »

Good friends are like good bras…

· 6 January 2005

Good friends are like good bras…they never leave you hangin’; they support you; they make you look good, and are forever close to your heart.

— Author unknown (thanks Teresa)

« πλ | Friendship, Observation »

Friendship is unnecessary…

· 5 January 2005

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that gives value to survival.

— C.S. Lewis (thanks Libby)

« πλ | Friendship »

Want to fly so much that…

· 4 January 2005

“How does one become a butterfly?” she asked pensively.

“You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.”

— Trina Paulus, Hope for the Flowers

« πλ | Faith »

You can know the name of a bird…

· 3 January 2005

You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you’re finished, you’ll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird… So let’s look at the bird and see what it’s doing—that’s what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.

— Richard Feynman [via]

This seems to apply to Jesus. You can know about him, or you can know Him.

« πλ | Observation »

What a wonderful life…

· 2 January 2005

What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.

— Colette [via]

« πλ | Observation »

Overcome fear, behold wonder…

· 1 January 2005

The meaning I picked, the one that changed my life: Overcome fear, behold wonder.

— Aeschylus [via]

« πλ | Fear »