pacificsm pain pantheism paradox parents parody parting passion patience patriotism peace perfection Perivale permanence persecution perseverance pessimist Peter photography philosophy plagiarism plans pleasure pluralism poetry politics political correctness pornography possibility postmodernism poverty power praise prayer prayers preaching predestination predictions prejudice Presbyterian presumption presuppositions pride principles priorities privacy probability problems procrastination profanity progress promises prophet prosperity prostitution proverbs providence prudence psychiatry punctuality purgatory puritans punishment puns purpose |
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[A pacifist is] the last and least excusable on the list of the enemies of society.--G. K. Chesterton I do believe that where there is a choice only between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence. --Mohandas Gandhi Pacifism is objectively pro-fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side, you automatically help out that of the other. Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as the present one. In practice, 'he that is not with me is against me' - George Orwell, writing of Britain's pacifists in 1942 The Bible is clear here: I am to love my neighbor as myself, in the manner needed, in a practical way, in the midst of the fallen world, at my particular point of history. This is why I am not a pacifist. Pacifism in this poor world in which we live -- this lost world -- means that we desert the people who need our greatest help. -- Francis Schaeffer, 1984 The pacifist thinks that the alternative to war is peace; it is not. Sometimes the alternative is oppression. Sometimes certain God-given rights and liberties can be preserved only by resistance to that which would destroy them. And to defend certain basic God-given rights and liberties is not immoral but righteous. --Fulton John Sheen (1895-1979) _A Declaration Of Dependance_ [1941]
In time of sickness the soul collects itself anew. -- Latin Proverb We cannot learn without pain. -- Aristotle Pain nourishes courage. You can't be brave if you've only had wonderful things happen to you. Pain is inevitable. Misery is optional. Physical pain is a fact that comes with living, just as illness or financial woes or broken relationships are facts. But misery is a state of mind, a reaction to the facts, that can be controlled or altered by an act of will.-- Barbara, crippled by arthritis. Pain is a kindly, hopeful thing, a certain proof of life, a clear assurance that all is not yet over, that there is still a chance. But if your heart has no pain -- well, that may betoken health, as you suppose: but are you certain that it does not mean that your soul is dead?... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954) Pain is life - the sharper, the more evidence of life.Charles Lamb (1775-1834) Life's sharpest rapture is surcease of pain.-- Emma Lazarus God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our
conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to
rouse a deaf world. In a sense, it (Christianity) creates rather than solves the problem of pain, for pain would be no problem unless side by side with our daily experience of this painful world, we had received what we think a good assurance that ultimate reality is righteous and loving. C. S. LEWIS, The Problem of Pain No doubt Pain as God's megaphone is a terrible instrument; it may lead to final and unrepented rebellion. But it gives the only opportunity the bad man can have for amendment. It removes the veil; it plants the flag of truth within the fortress of a rebel soul. C. S. LEWIS [Pain] removes the veil; it plants the flag of truth within the fortress of a rebel soul. -- C.S. Lewis --The Problem of Pain We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret and disappointment. --Karl Marx No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown.-- William Penn Illness is the most heeded of doctors: to goodness and wisdom we only make promises; pain we obey.-- Proust In the country of pain we are each alone.--May Sarton
The absorption of the individual in the universal is only another term for its destruction.... C. Harold Dodd (1884-1973)
I think. . .I think it's in my basement. . .Let me go upstairs and check. --M.C. Echer Paradox with him was only truth standing on its head to attract attention.-- Richard Le Gallienne writng of Wilde Less is more.- Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) : New York Herald Tribune, 1959. If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn't. -- Lyall Watson
If your children look up to you, you've made a success of life's biggest job. The only true child experts are those that do not yet have any of their own. During my piano recital, I was on a stage and scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore, - Cindy - age 8 If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning.- Katherine Aird The joys of parents are secret, and so are their griefs
and fears: they cannot utter the one, nor will they utter
the other. The most important thing that parents can teach their children is how to get along without them. Frank A. Clark Parents are often so busy with the physical rearing of children that they miss the glory of parenthood, just as the grandeur of the trees is lost when raking leaves. -- Marcelene Cox What a mercy was it to us to have parents that prayed for
us before they had us, as well as in our infancy when we
could not pray for ourselves! Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands. - Anne Frank (1929-1945) "The Diary of a Young Girl," 1952. Parents are by no means exempt from the intoxication of dominion. - Samuel Johnson: Rambler #148 Happy is the child whose father acquits himself with credit in the presence of its friends ~ Robert Lynd, The Blue Lion Before you were born your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way paying your bills, cleaning your room, and listening to you tell how idealistic you are. So before you save the rain forest from the bloodsucking parasites of your parents' generation, try delousing the closet in your own room. Charles Sykes DUMBING DOWN OUR KIDS. Schoolmasters and parents exist to be grown out of. London Sunday Times [Being a parent] is tough. If you just want a wonderful little creature to love, you can get a puppy.Barbara Walters (1931-____) There are no illegitimate children--only illegitimate parents. -- Leon R. Yankwich
Many are cold, but few are frozen. A man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a metaphor? People who live in glass houses shouldn't. Cogito ergo spud. - I think, therefore I yam.-- Graffito reported by Herb Caen If you can start the day without caffeine or pep pills Metaphors be with you! I think bad thoughts therefore I'm man. Those who forget the pasta are condemned to reheat it I heard that if you locked William Shakespeare in a room with a typewriter for long enough, he'd eventually write all the songs by the Monkees A light to lighten the genitals - Graffito by the light switch in an Oxford college lavatory. They came for the smoker, but I didn't smoke, so I said
nothing. When they came for the smokers I kept silent because I don't smoke.When they came for the meat eaters I kept silent because I'm a vegetarian. When they came for the gun owners I kept silent because I'm a pacifist. When they came for the drivers I kept silent because I'm a bicyclist. They never did come for me. I'm still here because there's nobody left in the secret police except sissies with rickets. -- Florence King Gin a body meet a body One man's Mede is another man's Persian --"Saki" (H. H. Munro) I think, therefore Descartes exists. - Saul Steinberg (1914 &endash; 1999)
In every parting there is an image of death. --George Eliot [Marian Evans Cross] (1819-1880) _Scenes of Clerical Life_ [1858], "Amos Barton"
To care passionately for another human creature brings always more sorrow than joy, but one would not be without that experience. - Agatha Christie, 1890 - 1976 If passion rules, how weak does reason prove!--John Dryden (1631-1700)_The Rival Ladies_ [1664] Most marriages recognize this paradox: Passion destroys passion; we want what puts an end to wanting what we want.--John Fowles A man in passion rides a horse that runs away with him. - Thomas Fuller, 1608 - 1661 Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion. - Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, 1770 - 1831 Our passions are like convulsion fits, which, though they make us stronger for a time, leave us the weaker ever after. - Alexander Pope, 1688 - 1744 The ruling passion, be it what it will, The most untutored person with passion is more persuasive than the most eloquent without. - François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, 1613 - 1680 It is difficult to overcome one's passions, and impossible to satisfy them. -- Marguerite de la Sabliere Passion is the quickest to develop, and the quickest to fade. Intimacy develops more slowly, and commitment more gradually still. -Robert Steinberg The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions. --Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) ........everywhere
Patience is a good servant whom all recommend, but few like to employ. I am waiting as fast as I can ! I want patience, and I want it NOW ! If you are patient in one day of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.-- Chinese Proverb Sauri ya haifi nawa? To how many has haste given birth? -- Hausa Proverb, Nigeria. Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city. --Proverbs 16:32 NIV Our patience will achieve more than our force. Edmund Burke There is, however, a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue.--Edmund Burke, Observations on Late Publication on the Present State of the Nation. Vol. i. p. 273. Patience and fortitude conquer all things.-- Ralph Waldo Emerson Fortunately, God suffers fools gladly, I think. It's part of His job, and it's the only explanation I can think of for my own survival. -- Mary Fairchild If they try to rush me, I always say, "I've only got one other speed - and it's slower." Glenn Ford The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it. --Arnold Glasow When God ripens apples, he isn't in a hurry and doesn't make a noise. -- D Jackman Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another
as to remain always cool and unruffled under all
circumstances. Never cut what you can untie.-- Joseph Joubert We are working for the future. We are not concerned with
the seeming victory of the moment but with the final
triumph. With us the question is not what influence we can
exert now but what power we can exercise 50 years hence, not
how few men we have today but how many will arise out of the
younger generation who will be men of our principles. We
know how to practice patience. We know that the fruit cannot
be plucked before the harvest time has arrived. Yet we also
know that the hour of victory will some day come. If God has taken away all means of seeking remedy, there is nothing left but patience.-- John Locke Rest in the Lord; wait patiently for Him. In Hebrew, "Be
silent in God, and let Him mould thee." Keep still, and He
will mould thee to the right shape. Patience is something you admire in the driver behind you, but not in the one ahead.-- Bill McGlashen But patience is more oft the exercise Most things, except agriculture, can wait. - Jawaharlal Nehru (1889 &endash; 1964) You have need of patience; and if you ask, the Lord will give it: but there can be no settled peace till our will is in a measure subdued. Hide yourself under the shadow of His wings; rely upon His care and power; look upon Him as a physician who has graciously undertaken to heal your soul of the worst of sicknesses, sin. Yield to His prescriptions, and fight against every thought that would represent it as desirable to be permitted to choose for yourself.- JOHN NEWTON There are times when God asks nothing of his children except silence, patience and tears. -- C. S. Robinson Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them -- every day begin the task anew.... Francois de Sales (1567-1622) Though patience be a tired mare, yet she will plod.-- Shakespeare, Henry V How poor are they that have not patience! --William Shakespeare. Othello. Act ii. Sc. 3. Mercy hath a heaven, and justice a hell, to display itself to eterity, but long-suffering hath only a short-lived earth. HENRY SMITH He who waits on God never waits too long. Chuck Wagner
Patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or
bitterness for anyone. True patriotism doesn't exclude an understanding of the patriotism of others. ~Queen Elizabeth II A patriot is he whose publick conduct is regulated by one single motive, the love of his country; who, as an agent in parliament, has, for himself, neither hope nor fear, neither kindness nor resentment,but refers every thing to the common interest. - Samuel Johnson: The Patriot To love their country has been considered as virtue in men, whose love could not be otherwise than blind, because their preference was made without, a comparison; but it has never been my fortune to find, either in ancient or modern writers, any honourable mention of those, who have, with equal blindness, hated their country.- Samuel Johnson, Taxation No Tyranny It is the quality of patriotism to be jealous and watchful, to observe all secret machinations, and to see publick dangers at a distance. The true lover of his country is ready to communicate his fears, and to sound the alarm, whenever he perceives the approach of mischief. But he sounds no alarm, when there is no enemy; he never terrifies his ncountrymen till he is terrified himself. The patriotism, therefore, may be justly doubted of him, who professes to be disturbed by incredibilities... -- Samuel Johnson: The Patriot Still today many subscribe to the infamous assertion of E. M. Forster that, if he had to choose between betraying his country and betraying his friends, he hoped he would have the guts to betray his country. Forgotten is the reality that one is betraying one's friends by betraying one's country. Forgotten, too, is the fact that those who are the friends of tyrants and mass murderers should not be counted as friends. -- Richard John Neuhaus Patriotism is usually stronger than class hatred, and always stronger than internationalism. George Orwell, Selected Essays Some reformers may urge that in the ages distant future, patriotism, like the habit of monogamous marriage, will become a needless and obsolete virtue; but just at present the man who loves other countries as much as he does his own is quite as noxious a member of society as the man who loves other women as much as he loves his wife. Love of country is an elemental virtue, like love of home." --Theodore Roosevelt Our country right or wrong. When right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be put right. ~ Carl Schurz Breathes there the man with soul so dead Brutus: Who is here so vile that will not love his country? --Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
For people who like peace and quiet: a phoneless cord. Do your best and then sleep in peace. God is awake. Serenity is not freedom from the storm, but peace amid the storm. I was in Chelsea police station where I was charged with perjury and conspiracy to pervert public justice. I spent the next five hours alone in a police cell while waiting for the various formalities such as finger-printing and photographs. I used that time to pray, to meditate and to read all sixteen chapters of St Mark's Gospel, something I had long meant to do at one sitting. This should have been a time of deep despair. The worst day of my life. Not so. For I had such an overwhelming sense of God's presence in the cell with me that I was at peace. Jonathan Aitken in The Tablet. 12 June 1999 Reconciliation should be accompanied by justice, otherwise it will not last. While we all hope for peace it shouldn't be peace at any cost but peace based on principle, on justice. Corazon Aquino Peace - In international affairs, a period of cheating between two periods of fighting. Ambrose Bierce: Devil's Dictionary Peace purchased at the cost of any part of our national integrity is fit only for slaves, and even when purchased for such a price it is a delusion, for it cannot last. - Wm. E. Borah Peace will not be preserved by pious sentiments."Winston Churchill (1874-1965) Even peace may be purchased at too high a price. --Benjamin Franklin Do not let your peace depend on what people say of you,
for whether they speak good or ill of you makes no
difference to what you are. True peace and joy is to be
found in Me alone. He who is neither anxious to please nor
afraid to displease men enjoys true peace. Who except God can give you peace? Has the world ever been able to satisfy the heart? Gerard Majella We are not at peace with others because we are not at peace with ourselves, and we are not at peace with ourselves because we are not at peace with God. THOMAS MERTON Peace hath her victories If God be our God, He will give us peace in trouble. When there is a storm without, He will make peace within. The world can create trouble in peace, but God can create peace in trouble -- THOMAS WATSON
I am not a perfectionist. My parents were though. Mutum dan tara ne.- Man is a son of nine, i.e. he never has a perfect 10/10 score.- Hausa proverb, Nigeria. Perfection consists not in doing extraordinary things, but in doing ordinary things extraordinarlity well. Neglect nothing; the most trivial action may be performed to God.-- Angelique Arnauld. When a man says that he is perfect already, there is only one of two places for him, and that is heaven or the lunatic asylum. --Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) _Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit_ [1887] The greatest of all faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none.-- Thomas Carlyle Abandon all hopes of utopia -- there are people involved.-- Clayton Cramer Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it. - Salvadore Dali The surest hindrance of success is to have too high a standard of refinement in our own minds, or too high an opinion of the judgement of the public. He who is determined not to be satisfied with anything short of perfection will never do anything to please himself or others.-- Hazlitt (1778-1830) I have no faith in human perfectability. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active - not more happy - nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago. - Edgar Allan Poe, 1809 - 1849
Parish of enormous hayfields
The Moving Finger writes: and having writ,
In a democracy the majority of citizens is capable of
exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the
minority...and that oppression of the majority will extend
to far great number, and will be carried on with much
greater fury, than can almost ever be apprehended from the
dominion of a single sceptre. Under a cruel prince they have
the plaudits of the people to animate their generous
constancy under their sufferings; but those who are
subjected to wrong under multitudes are deprived of all
external consolation: they seem deserted by mankind,
overpowered by a conspiracy of their whole species. The earnest freethinkers need not worry themselves too
much about the persecutions of the past. Before the Liberal
idea is dead or triumphant, we shall see wars and
persecutions the like of which the World has never seen.
They need not reserve their tears for the victims of Bonner
or Claverhouse [leaders of religious persecution under
Mary Tudor and Charles II]. They may weep for themselves
and their children. When searching for examples of state-sponsored barbarities, intellectuals are quick to point to the Spanish Inquisition or its Protestant imitation, the Witchhunt. How could anyone, modern academics wonder, persecute another for their beliefs? These same intellectuals, ironically, are often the very people who served as cheerleaders for political persecution and mass murder on a scale unmatched in human history. The Spanish Inquisition claimed slightly more than 2,000 lives during its 25-year apex between 1480 and 1505. One would be hard pressed to find any 25-day period in Russia under Stalin, China under Mao, or Cambodia under Pol Pot in which the killing was that slight. Yet it is a Torquemada or Salem that is equated with homicidal intolerance. The crimes of Communismare ignored. Being generous, one might suppose that intellectuals are simplyblinded by the prejudices of our age and are unable to detach themselves and see the killing that has occurred right under their noses. A more cynical perspective might view their amnesia as a self-induced condition brought on as a method to absolve themselves of their own role in supporting murder. --Daniel J Flynn, Ideas Have Consequences... Like Murder, Tyranny, and Repression It is not conclusive proof of a doctrine's correctness that its adversaries use the police, the hangman, and violent mobs to fight it. But it is a proof of the fact that those taking recourse to violent oppression are in their subconsciousness convinced of the untenability of their own doctrines. -- Ludwig von Mises Come down, O Son of God! incestuous gloom
Rome wasn't burned in a day. Who climb with toil, wheresoe'er, Courage and perseverance have a magic talisman, before which difficulties and obstacles vanish into air. John Adams (1767-1848) It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds.--Samuel Adams Those who gave thee a body, furnished it with weakness; but He who gave thee Soul, armed thee with resolution. Employ it, and thou art wise; be wise and thou art happy.- Akhenaton, Egyptian pharaoh c 1350 The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is, that one often comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't. Henry Ward Beecher Consider the postage stamp: its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing until it gets there. Josh Billings And gain is gain, however small.- Robert Browning (1812-1889) To make our way, we must have firm resolve, persistence, tenacity. We must gear ourselves to work hard all the way. We can never let up.Ralph Bunche (1904-1971) A Critical Analysis of the Tactics and Programs of Minority Groups, In "Journal of Negro Education, Jul 1935. Seeing that a Pilot steers the ship in which we sail, who will never allow us to perish even in the midst of shipwrecks, there is no reason why our minds should be overwhelmed with fear and overcome with weariness. John Calvin Let us not cease to do the utmost, that we may
incessantly go forward in the way of the Lord; and let us
not despair of the smallness of our accomplishments. Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak. Thomas Carlyle Pablo Casals (1876-1973), the great cellist, when in his 90s, was once asked why he continued to practice on the cello for hours every day. His answer: "Because I think I'm seeing improvement." One man scorned and covered with scars still strove with his last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable stars; and the world will be better for this.CERVANTES, MIGUEL de (1547-1616,){Don Quixote de la Mancha, 1605-1615} Aim for perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable. However, they who aim at it, and persevere, will come much nearer to it than those whose despondency and laziness make them give it up as unattainable. - Philip Dormer Chesterfield (1694-1773) Firmness of purpose is one of the most necessary sinews of character, and one of the best instruments of success. Without it genius wastes its efforts in a maze of inconsistencies. - Philip Dormer Chesterfield (1694-1773) I learned ... that one can never go back, that one should not ever try to go back - that the essence of life is going forward. Life is really a one-way street, isn't it? Agatha Christie If you're going through hell, keep going. ---Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965 Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never- in nothing great or small, large or petty-never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Winston Churchill 1941--Harrow School Failure is the line of least persistence. - W. A. Clark Pursue one great decisive aim with force and
determination. The greatest glory is not in never failing but in rising up every time we fall. - Confucius. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated failures. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. Calvin Coolidge To become a champion, fight one more round.-- James J. Corbett Most of us serve our ideals by fits and starts. The
person who makes a success of living is the one who sees his
goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly. Ride on! Rough-shod if need be, smooth-shod if that will do, but ride on! Ride on over all obstacles, and win the race! -- Charles Dickens Through perserverence many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain failure....Benjamin Disraeli The secret of success is constancy of purpose. Disraeli (1804-1881) Nothing can resist the human will that will stake even its existence on its stated purpose.DISRAELI, BENJAMIN Neither place, parts, nay, nor graces, will exempt any man from falling. O believers, what need is there to be watchful and humble!-JAMES DURHAM History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats. B. C. Forbes How you start is important, but it is how you finish that counts. In the race for success, speed is less important than stamina. The sticker outlasts the sprinter.-- B. C. Forbes (1880-1954) In "Reader's Digest," Jan 1991. The only way round is through.-- Robert Frost (1874-1963) In "Barnes & Noble Book of Quotations," by Robert I. Fitzhenry, 1987. In the realm of ideas, everything depends on enthusiasm. In the real world, all rests on perseverance.-- Goethe We will find a way or make one.- Hannibal (247-182BC) It matters if you just don't give up.HAWKING, STEPHEN (1942- ) Heavy blizzards start as a gentle and persistent snow.- Mark Helprin Only a sweet and virtuous soul, Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.... Napoleon Hill It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves. Edmund Hillary (1919-____) In "Reader's Digest." There is no royal road to anything. One thing at a time, all things in succession. That which grows fast, withers as rapidly. That which grows slowly, endures.- Josiah Gilbert Holland, 1819 - 1881 A man may write at any time, if he will set himself *doggedly* to it. -- Samuel Johnson (Boswell: Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides) When I find that so much of my life has stolen
unprofitably away, and that I can descry by retrospection
scarcely a few single days properly and vigorously employed,
why do I yet try to resolve again? I try, because
reformation is necessary and despair is criminal. I try, in
humble hope of the help of God. Resolve, and keep your resolution; choose, and pursue your choice. If you spend this day in study, you will find yourself still more able to study tomorrow; not that you are to expect that you shall all at once obtain a complete victory. Depravity is not very easily overcome. Resolution will sometimes relax, and diligence will sometimes be interrupted; but let no accidental surprise or deviation, whether short or long, dispose you to despondency. Boswell: Life of Johnson Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Samuel Johnson: Rasselas Great works are performed, not by strength, but by perseverance; yonder palace was raised by single stones, yet you see its height and spaciousness. He that shall walk with vigour three hours a day, will pass in seven years a space equal to the circumference of the globe. Samuel Johnson: Rasselas All the performances of human art, at which we look with
praise or wonder, are instances of the resistless force of
perseverance; it is by this that the quarry becomes a
pyramid, and that distant countries are united with canals.
If a man was to compare the single stroke of the pickaxe, or
of one impression of the spade, with the general design and
the last result, he would be overwhelmed by the sense of
their disproportion; yet those petty operations, incessantly
continued, in time surmount the greatest difficulties, and
mountains are leveled and oceans bounded by the slender
force of human beings. Happy are they ... who shall learn ... not to despair, but shall remember, that though the day is past, and their strength is wasted, there yet remains one effort to be made; that reformation is never hopeless, nor sincere endeavours ever unassisted; that the wanderer may at length return after all his errours, and that he who implores strength and courage from above shall find danger and difficulty give way before him."- Samuel Johnson: Rambler #65 Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.... Michael Jordan No longer diverted by other emotions, I work the way a cow grazes. - Kathe Kollwitz (1867 &endash; 1945) I am a slow walker, but I never walk backwards. Abraham Lincoln The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure. These qualities are so much more important than the events that occur. - Vincent Thomas Lombardi, 1913 - 1970 Endurance is the crowning quality, No worthy enterprise can be done by us without continual plodding and wearisomeness to our faint and sensitive abilities.-- John Milton. The power of the waterfall is nothing more than a bunch of drips working together. --Theresa Morris Victory belongs to the most persevering. Napoleon (1769-1821) Lack of will power has caused more failure than lack of intelligence or ability. Flower A. Newhouse If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention, than to any other talent.-- Isaac Newton God hath work to do in this world; and to desert it because of its difficulties and entanglements, is to cast off His authority. It is not enough that we be just, that we be righteous, and walk with God in holiness; but we must also serve our generation, as David did before he fell asleep. God hath a work to do; and not to help Him is to oppose Him.-- John Owen A river continually fed by a living fountain may as soon end its streams before it come to the ocean, as a stop be put to the course and progress of grace before it issue in glory.- JOHN OWEN Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity. Louis Pasteur (1822-1895 Life has not taught me to expect nothing, but she has taught me not to expect success to be the inevitable result of my endeavors. She taught me to seek sustenance from the endeavor itself, but to leave the result to God." Alan Paton, "The Challenge of Fear," Saturday Review, September 9, 1967 Patience and diligence, like faith, remove mountains. --William Penn (1644-1718) Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little. Plutarch I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles. - Christopher Reeve - Still Me To endure is the first thing that a child ought to learn, and that which he will have the most need to know. - Jean Jacques Rousseau, 1712 - 1778 I exhort you and beseech you in the bowels of Christ, faint not, weary not. There is a great necessity of heaven; you must have it... Think it not easy; for it is a steep ascent to eternal glory; many are lying dead by the way, that were slain with security. SAMUEL RUTHERFORD (this quotation is from Letter 100) Tough times never last, but tough people do. Robert Schuller There are no shortcuts to any place worth going. Beverly Sills Whatever is done for men or classes, to a certain extent takes away the stimulus and necessity of doing for themselves... Help from without is often enfeebling, but help from within invigorates...... It is not the man of the greatest natural vigour and capacity who achieves the highest results but he who employs his powers with the greatest industry and the most carefully -disciplined skill..... The battle of life is in most cases fought uphill... if there were no difficulties there would be no success, if there was nothing to struggle for there would be nothing to be achieved. All experiences of life seems to prove that the impediments thrown in the way of the human advancement may for the most part be overcome by steady good conduct, honest zeal, activity, perseverance and above all, by a determined resolution to surmount difficulties and stand up manfully against misfortune. Samuel Smiles, "Self Help" We believe in the perseverance of the saints, but many are not saints, and therefore do not persevere. -- C.H. Spurgeon If our religion be of our own getting or making, it will perish; and the sooner it goes, the better; but if our religion is a matter of God's giving, we know that He shall never take back what He gives, and that, if He has commenced to work in us by His grace, He will never leave it unfinished. CHARLES SPURGEON To endure is greater than to dare; to tire out hostile fortune; to be daunted by no difficulty; to keep heart when all have lost it; to go through intrigue spotless; to forego even ambition when the end is gained - who can say this is not greatness? - William Makepeace Thackeray, 1811 - 1863 Don't bother about genius. Don't worry about being clever. Trust to hard work, perseverance and determination. And the best motto for a long march is: "Don't grumble. Plug on!"--- Sir Frederick Treves That which was hard to endure is sweet to remember. - Mark Twain, 1835 - 1910 To achieve great things we must live as if we were never going to die.--Marquis de Vauvenargues When God calls a man, He does not repent of it. God does not, as many friends do, love one day, and hate another; or as princes, who make their subjects favourites, and afterwards throw them into prison. This is the blessedness of a saint; his condition admits of no alteration. God's call is founded on His decree, and His decree is immutable. Acts of grace cannot be reversed. God blots out his people's sins, but not their names THOMAS WATSON Do not attempt to do a thing unless you are sure of yourself; but do not relinquish it simply because someone else is not sure of you. --Stewart E. White Genius is divine perseverance. Genius I cannot claim, nor even extra brightness, but perseverance all can have.--Woodrow Wilson: Don't quit when the tide is lowest,
I've never seen a monument erected to a pessimist. Paul Harvey No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars or sailed to an uncharted land or opened a new heaven to the human spirit. Helen Keller Pessimism wilts everything around it.-- Michael Levine Focus on your potential instead of your limitations. Alan Loy McGinnis Every thought is a seed. If you plant crab apples, don't count on harvesting Golden Delicious. Bill Meyer The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.--George F. Will (1941- )_The Leveling Wind_ [1994] A pessimist is one who builds dungeons in the air. -Walter Winchell
[Saint] Peter couldn't open his mouth without putting his foot in it. He also had feet of clay.
The philosopher DesCarte was sitting in a Restaurant, he had just eaten. The waitress asked, "Mr. DesCarte, would you like anything else?" He replied, "I think not." And he ceased to exist. I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are very wise and very beautiful; but I never read in either of them: "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden. - Augustine (354-430) CARTESIAN, adj. Relating to Descartes, a famous philosopher, author of the celebrated dictum, *Cogito ergo sum* -- whereby he was pleased to suppose he demonstrated the reality of human existence. The dictum might be improved, however, thus: *Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum* -- "I think that I think, therefore I think that I am;" as close an approach to certainty as any philosopher has yet made. --Ambrose Bierce (1842-c.1914) in The Devil's Dictionary (1911) The modern habit of saying, "Every man has a different philosophy; this is my philosophy and it suits me"--the habit of saying this is mere weak mindedness. A cosmic philosophy is not constructed to fit a man; a cosmic philosophy is constructed to fit a cosmos. A man can no more possess a private religion than he can possess a private sun and moon. -- G K Chesterton, from a forward to an edition of the Book of Job, 1907 There is nothing so absurd but some philosopher has said
it. It (modern philosophy) certainly exacts a surrender of all supernaturalism and fixed dogma and rigid institutionalism with which Christianity has been historically associated. John Dewey No one should pay attention to a man delivering a lecture or a sermon on his "philosophy of life" until we know exactly how he treats his wife, his children, his neighbors, his friends, his subordinates and his enemies. --Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986) There is only one thing a philosopher can be relied upon to do, and that is to contradict other philosophers. --- William James After we came out of the church, we stood talking for some time together of Bishop Berkeley's ingenious sophistry to prove the non-existence of matter, and that everything in the uni-verse is merely ideal. I observed, that though we are satisfied his doctrine is not true, it is impossible to refute it. I never shall forget the alacrity with which Johnson answered, striking his foot with mighty force against a large stone, till he rebounded from it, `I refute it thus.'-James Boswell, _Life of Samuel Johnson_ It is in precisely in knowing its limits that philosophy consists. - Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) Critique of Pure Reason 1781 There was an awful rainbow once in heaven: Relativism says it is impossible to be wrong in any way that matters. As such it is the opiate of the people. - Dick Keyes The true function of philosophy is to educate us in the principles of reasoning and not to put an end to further reasoning by the introduction of fixed conclusions.- George Henry Lewes (1817-1878) The Biographical History of Philosophy. If particulars are to have meaning, there must be universals. PLATO His philosophy was a mixture of three famous schools: the Cynics, the Stoics and the Epicureans - and summed up all three of them in his famous phrase, 'You can't trust any bugger further than you can throw him, and there's nothing you can do about it, so let's have a drink.' -- Terry Pratchett,_Small Gods_ No finite point has meaning without an infinite reference point. JEAN PAUL SARTE There is a difference between a philosophy and a bumper sticker. --Charles M. Schulz (1922-2000) Without God man has no reference point to define himself. 20th century philosophy manifests the chaos of man seeking to understand himself as a creature with dignity while having no reference point for that dignity. R C. SPROUL
My photographs don't do me justice -they just look like me ~Phyllis Diller.
About the most originality that any writer can hope to achieve honestly is to steal with good judgment. Josh Billings (1818-1885) In "Webster's Electronic Quotebase," ed. Keith Mohler, 1994
Proper prior planning prevents poor performance. The best laid schemes o' mice and men Fail to prepare, prepare to fail. - Keane, Roy Let God be the judge of sin Mr Marcham. We are all too eager to think our pleasures must be blessed. - The Tenant of Wildfell H, BBC TV adatptaion of Anne Bronte. (not found in the novel) In everything satiety closely follows the greatest pleasures.--Cicero (B.C. 106-43) True saints have their minds, in the first place, inexpressibly pleased and delighted with the sweet ideas of the glorious and amiable nature of the things of God. And this is the spring of all their delights, and the cream of all their pleasures... JONATHAN EDWARDS - Religious Affections Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook.--THOMAS JEFFERSON Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought; our
brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by
unexpected sparks. The publick pleasures of far the greater part of mankind are counterfeit. ... The general condition of life is so full of misery, that we are glad to catch delight without enquiring whence it comes, or by what power it is bestowed." -- Samuel Johnson: Idler #18 The pleasures of the world are deceitful; they promise more than they give. They trouble us in seeking them, they do not satisfy us when possessing them, and they make us despair in losing them.--Mad. de Lambert Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure ints healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are, in asense, on the Enemy's ground. I know we have won many a soulthrough pleasure. All the same, it is His invention, not ours. He made the pleasures: all our research so far has not enabled us to produce one. All we can do is to encourage the humans to take the pleasures which our Enemy has produced, at times, or in ways, or in degrees, which He has forbidden. Hence we always try to work away from the natural condition of any pleasure to that in which it is least natural, least redolent of its Maker, and least pleasurable. An ever increasing craving for an ever diminishing pleasure is the formula. It is more certain; and it's better style. To getthe man's soul and give him nothing in return--that is what really gladdens our Father's heart.--C. S. Lewis, _The Screwtape Letters_ The first great pleasure of God is his pleasure in the Son. --John Piper _The Pleasures of God_ p. 34 What fools are they who, for a drop of pleasure, drink a sea of wrath. - THOMAS WATSON
These are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own. - GKC, _Illustrated London News_ 8-11-28 America's founders were seized by a great liberal vision
-- a country in which people would freely exchange ideas
arising from a plurality of interests. From this dialogue,
truth could be rationally discovered. But in today's
relativistic environment, pluralism no longer means
tolerating competing ideas. It means forced neutrality.
According to this view, no one should express any idea that
could offend someone else. Thus relativism absolutizes pluralism. That is, it takes the clearly observable fact that we have a multitude of views and values and practices in the world‚ - pluralism‚ - and draws the illegitimate conclusion that there is no justifiable way of choosing among them. Truth is merely opinion, goodness only what the majority says it is. Daniel Taylor, Deconstructing the gospel of tolerance., Christianity Today. January 11, 1999 Vol. 43, No. 1, Page 42.
The General ... repeated nearly the whole of Gray's Elegy .... adding, as he concluded, that he would prefer being the author of that poem to the glory of beating the French tomorrow - Written of James Wolfe (1727-59) who died capturing Quebec.
One reason why George Washington Hall's Laws of Politics: Headline: Bear takes over Disneyland in Pooh D'Etat! Revolution is an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment. The voters have spoken, the bastards. Guy Fawkes -- the only man who ever entered Parliament with honest intentions. Politicians, like diapers, should be changed regularly, and for much the same reasons. There is no worse heresy then that the office sanctifies the holder of it. -- Lord Acton These bickerings of opposite parties, and their mutual reproaches their declamations, their sing-song, their triumphs and defiances, their dismals and prophecies, are all delusion.-- John Adams to Abigail; Jul 16, 1774 I have accepted a seat in the House of Representatives, and thereby have consented to my own ruin, to your ruin, and to the ruin of our children. I give you this warning that you may prepare your mind for your fate."- John Adams I agree with you that in politics the middle way is none at all. - John Adams (1767-1848) In "Adam," no. 299, "Samples from Almost Illegible Notebooks," 1962. Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences."-- Susan B. Anthony I may be president of the United States, but my private life is nobody's damned business.- Chester A. Arthur(1830-1886) US president: Responding to a visitor asking him about his expensive tastes. Man is by nature a political animal.-- Aristotle The best political community is formed by citizens of the middleclass. Aristotle Those with a more liberal viewpoint such as Mr. Weeks rarely esteem those to their social and theological right as compassionate. JB The politician is an acrobat; he keeps his balance by doing the opposite of what he says. Marice Barres (1862 &endash; 1923); You don't have to fool all the people all of the time; you just have to fool enough to get elected. Gerald Barza The British electors will not vote for a man who does not wear a hat.-- Lord Beaverbrook Even Napoleon had his Watergate.-- Yogi Berra POLITICS: A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage. - Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary (1911) - Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary (1911) The Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes and sets over them the lowliest of men. Dan. 4:17 Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable . . . the art of the next best.--Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) Remark to Prince Meyer von Waldeck, 11 Aug 1867 People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election.-Otto von Bismarck The fight for liberty is one in which we ought to be willing to engage. It goes without saying that Christians who judge the battle to be one that requires active participation are required to fight in accordance with the appropriate application of Christian "just war" criteria. In the political arena, the rule of civility is top of the list. - John Bolt, A Free Church, A Holy Nation: Abraham Kuyper's American Public Theology, Eerdmans, 2001 p.384 In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.-- Napoleon Bonaparte In politics, merit is rewarded by the possessor being raised, like a target, to a position to be fired at.-- Christian Nevell Bovee No wonder that, when a political career is so precarious, men of worth and capacity hesitate to embrace it. They cannot afford to be thrown out of their life's course by a mere accident.-- James Bryce (1838-1922) "The American Commonwealth," vol. 2, ch. 58, 1888. Too bad all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxi cabs and cutting hair. George Burns I have no consistency, except in politics; and that probably arises from my indifference to the subject altogether.-- Lord Byron Sometimes in politics one must duel with skunks, but no one should be fool enough to allow the skunks to choose the weapons.-Joe Cannon (R-IL) Vain hope, to make people happy by politics.~ Thomas Carlyle 1795 - 1881, Journal, (Oct 10, 1831) If there is one eternal truth of politics, it is that there are always a dozen good reasons for doing nothing.-- John le Carre We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles. Jimmy Carter (1924-____) Vain hope to make men happy by politics! -- Thomas Carlyle, _Journal_, 1831 In politics, there is no use looking beyond the next fortnight. - Joseph Chamberlain (1836 &endash; 1914) There is little place in the political scheme of things for an independent, creative personality, for a fighter. Anyone who takes that role must pay a price.- Shirley Chisholm (1924-____) In "Words of Women Quotations for Success," by Power Dynamics Publishing, 1997 No part of the education of a politician is more indispensable than the fighting of elections.-- Winston Churchill I would have been glad to have lived under my woodside, and to have kept a flock of sheep, rather than to have undertaken this government. --Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658)_To Parliament_ [1658] What this country needs is more unemployed politicians. - Angela Davis (1944 &endash; ) A man that would expect to train lobsters to fly in a year is called a lunatic; but a man that thinks men can be turned into angels by an election is a reformer and remains at large.-- Finley Peter Dunne An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry. George Eliot For the whole of my political life, Labour has espoused a view of human nature which is simply wrong. The self-regarding side has been ignored or suppressed" All the cant that we paraded on stilts, the notion that we were only motivated by altruism, must have left the punters bewildered and angry: it is just not how the world works. "Our job now is to show how self-interest &endash; a natural and wholesome instinct, the greatest driving force in all of us &endash; can also promote the common good.The last government failed to distinguish between self-interest and selfish greed. If people are worrying about their future, their children's future, the care of their elderly parents, they won't have time or sympathy for more vulnerable people. Our aim must be to make them so happy that we can win their support for other people less fortunate. Frank Field The United States has not sent troops to the Saudi desert to preserve democratic principles. The Saudi monarch is a feudal regime that does not even allow women to drive cars. Surely it is not American policy to make the world safe for feudalism. This is about money, about protecting governments loyal to America and punishing those that are not, and about who will set the price of oil. ~ Thomas L. Friedland, 'Washington's Vital Interests', NY Times. Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.-John Kenneth Galbraith There exists no politician in India daring enough to attempt to explain to the masses that cows can be eaten. Indira Gandhi In politics it is necessary either to betray one's country of the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate.-- Charles De Gaulle In the tumult of men and events, solitude was my temptation; now it is my friend. What other satisfaction can be sought once you have confronted History? - Charles De Gaulle (1890-1970) "War Memoirs," vol. 3, ch. 7, 1959. So why did I join? (The Christian Peoples Alliance) Well, when I came to the UK I saw it was a Christian country - its Christian foundations were the reason for tolerant and compassionate asylum regime. Over time I realised that Christianity underpinned both law and our political institutions. Yet today it is under threat. Truly we are witnessing a clash of cultures - not Christianity versus Islam, but religious world views against secular fundamentalisms. What are we to do about it? For me, the CPA is a means to renew the consent for the Christian world view in public life and policy. When our opponents talk of 'pluralism', I find thisÝis a mask for an agenda to privatise Christianity. They oppose the idea that Christianity should remain public truth in the public square. They want it to be one choice among many. How often are we told "You can have that view, but keep it to yourself"? "- Ram Gidoomal "Karma, Politics and the Holy Spirit" - A Review of the CPA's Future, Address to the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Group, Saturday June 19th 2204, Friends House, Euston Nothing that is morally wrong can be politically right. - William E. Gladstone (1809 &endash; 1898) How small, of all that human hearts endure, There's nothing left . . . but to get drunk. - Franklin Pierce (1804-1869) When asked what a President should do after leaving office; in "Rutherford B. Hayes and His America," by Harry Barnard, p 503, 1954. The two major political parties can be summed up this way: There are two parties, one is the Stupid Party and the other is the Evil Party. Occasionally these two parties create legislation that is both stupid and evil. This is called bi-partisianship. -- Andrew Grooms The best party is but a kind of conspiracy against the rest of the nation.-- Lord Halifax, 1750 In political matters feeling often decides more correctly than reason. -- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 173 To err is human. To blame someone else is politics. The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.-- HUMPHREY, HUBERT HORATIO (1911-1978, ) The concentrating [of powers] in the same hands is precisely the definition of despotic government. It will be no alleviation that these powers will be exercised by a plurality of hands, and not by a single one.-- Thomas Jefferson How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of Negroes? Johnson: Taxation No Tyranny Politicks are now nothing more than means of rising in the world. With this sole view do men engage in politicks, and their whole conduct proceeds upon it.- Samuel Johnson (Boswell: Life of Johnson) Faction seldom leaves a man honest, however it might find him.- Samuel Johnson: Milton (Lives of the Poets) Why, Sir, most schemes of political improvement are very laughable things. - Samuel Johnson (Boswell: Life of Johnson) Why, Sir, most schemes of political improvement are very laughable things. -- Samuel Johnson (Boswell: Life of Johnson) Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.-- Henry Kissinger Anyone in his position needs to be whiter than white.-- Dame Jill Knight MP on Nelson Mandela, BBC Radio Ulster, 1990. Politicophobia is not calvinistic, is not Christian, is
not ethical. The more I see of the representatives of the people, the more I admire my dogs.- Alphonse de Lamartine Many Christians are reluctant to become involved in public affairs be cause politics is a "dirty business", but the same people are generally quite happy to go into business life, which is in its way just as "dirty". If the dubious practices and moral compromises of every walk of life were dissected and made known with the glare of publicity which shines on the activities of politicians, then those who like to think that they can keep their hands clean would have very few professions to choose from. John Lawrence, Hard Facts [1958] I once said cynically of a politician, "He'll double-cross that bridge when he comes to it.--Oscar Levant To be happy at home, said Johnson, is the end of all human endeavour. As long as we are thinking only of natural values we must say that the sun looks down on nothing half so good as a household laughing together over a meal, or two friends talking over a pint of beer, or a man alone reading a book that interests him; and that all economics, politics, laws, armies, and institutions, save in so far as they prolong and multiply such scenes, are a mere ploughing the sand and sowing the ocean, a meaningless vanity and vexation of spirit. ... But do not let us mistake necessary evils for good. The mistake is easily made. Fruit has to be tinned if it is to be transported, and has to lose thereby some of its good qualities. But one meets people who have learned actually to prefer the tinned fruit to the fresh. A sick society must think much about politics, as a sick man must think much about his digestion: to ignore the subject may be fatal cowardice for the one as for the other. But if either comes to regard it as the natural food of the mind - if either forgets that we think of such things only in order to be able to think of something else - then what was undertaken for the sake of health has become itself a new and deadly disease.--C. S. Lewis "Membership" Sobernost #31 (June 1945) Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it, and then misapplying the wrong remedies.-- Groucho Marx Does a political party have no greater priority than its selfish self-perpetuation? G Maurie I voted for the Democrats because I didn't like the way the Republicans were running the country. Which is turning out to be like shooting yourself in the head to stop your headache.--Jack Mayberry Being in politics is like being in a football game. You have to be smart enough to know the game and stupid enough to think it important.-- Senator Eugene McCarthy (D-MN) You can be a rooster one day and a feather duster the next ~Frank McManus, on political life, Sydney Morning Herald 28 Dec 1974 God is a Republican, and Santa Claus is a Democrat. --H. L. Mencken Advertisement: African Grey Parrot for sale. Good talker. Owner no longer shares political opinions.-- The News Quiz BBC Radio 4 I reject the cynical view that politics is inevitably, or even usually, a dirty business. ~ Richard M. Nixon (August 1973) A straw vote only shows which way the hot air blows. O'Henry As any politician will tell you: you can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time -- and usually that's enough. - Robert Orben Politics should be limited in scope to war, protection of property, and the occasional precautionary beheading of a member of the ruling class. P.J. O'Rourke Political language...is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.-- George Orwell We have no eternal allies and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are perpetual and eternal and those interests it is our duty to follow. --Lord Palmerston, 1848 Public office is the last refuge of the incompetent. - Boies Penrose (1860 &endash; 1921) US senator (PA) Life is primarily political because politics is inevitably religious and has as its 'raison d'etre', its entire rationale, the administration of the law of an ultimate authority, i.e. a god, in the totality of life. In this sense, therefore, we can say that Christianity is the only 'true' politics. All other political ideologies are false, i.e. idolatrous.The body of Christ, as the 'polis' (the city) of God, whose 'demos' (people) constitute the 'ekklesia' (the body politic), is a political organism, and all other political organisms are apostate and in rebellion against God, their rightful King. Stephen Perks ,'Christianity As A Political Faith' 'Christianity & Society', April 2004 Sir, At midnight the Nanny State will truly have arrived:
we will all have to have our meat cut up for us. The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. -- Plato One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. Plato A little nonsense now and then is not a bad thing. Where would we politicians be if we were not allowed to talk it sometimes? Enoch Powell 1964 For a politician to complain about the press is like a ship's captain complaining about the sea. Enoch Powell Guardian article, 1984 I was born a Tory, am a Tory and shall die a Tory. I never yet heard that it was any part of the faith of a Tory to take the institutions and liberties, the laws and customs which this country has evolved over centuries and merge them with those of eight other nations into a new-made artificial state, and what is more to do so without the willing approbation and consent of the nation. Enoch Powell February 1974 No one is forced to be a politician. It can only compare
with fox hunting and writing poetry. These are two things
that men do for sheer enjoyment, too. All politics are based on the indifference of the majority.-- James Reston Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realise that it bears a very close resemblance to the first. REAGAN, RONALD (1911-) The Conservative Party is a broad church....The problem is that we don't have enough worshippers at the moment.-- John Redwood 6.5.97 All politics are based on the indifference of the majority.--James Reston, _New York Times_ [June 12, 1968] He who lives by demogoguery shall die by tabloid poisoning. -- Joe Rogaly Democrats are the only reason to vote for Republicans.--Will Rogers Kuyper's simple yet profound Christian vision was based
upon a deep faith as Christ as the King over the entire
cosmos. The exercise of this Christian vision in public
affairs can be called "political spiritualiy" - the ability
to discern the directions sin and grace take in public
affairs. Politial spirituality is an integrated Christian
attitude which enriches both thought and action. ...This
attitude of political spirtiuality must not be confused with
Kuyper's political tactics. Tactics change as times and
situations differ, "political spiritualiy" remains a part of
a Christian's obligations to do all things to the glory of
God. The attitude of christians towards a secularised
society determines what they think and do. One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny. Bertrand Russell People vote their resentment, not their appreciation. The average man does not vote for anything but against something. Saki (Hector Hugh Munro) A politician should have three hats. One for throwing into the ring, one for talking through, and one for pulling rabbits out of if elected.-- Carl Sandberg For socialists, not just the wealth, but the guilt, must be redistributed. Andrew Sandlin ....the difference between the west and the rest is that western societies are governed by politics;the rest are ruled by power.- Roger Scruton, The West and the Rest, ISI Books, 2002, p 7 The art of government is the organisation of idolatry. G B Shaw Some day a politician will arise who will be so devoted to truth that he will follow it, knowing that by doing so, he will go down to defeat. That day will be the restoration of politics as principles; it will also be the rebirth of a nation. --Fulton John Sheen (1895-1979) _Way to Inner Peace_ [1955] Wherever I go in this country, people know there is a problem.-- Billy Snedden, leader of the Australian Liberal Party, campaigning in 1974. Five decades? Six? Seven? How long should it take to understand that the life of a community cannot be reduced to politics or wholly encompassed by government? The time in which we live has unfathomable depths beneath it. Our age is a mere film on the surface of time. --Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, _November 1916_ "crisis": any situation you want to change Politics! You can wrap it up in fancy ribbons, but you can't hide the smell.-- Norman Spinrad I will make a bargain with the Republicans. If they will stop telling lies about Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them. Adlai Stevenson This woman is headstrong,obstinate and dangerously self-opinionated.-- ICI personnel report 1948 rejecting a job application from Margaret Thatcher You can't fool too many of the people too much of the time. James Thurber Ninety-eight percent of the adults in this country are decent,hard-working, honest Americans. It's the other lousy two percentthat get all the publicity. But then we elected them.~ Lily Tomlin You might think that, I couldn't possibly comment -- Francis Urquhart in Michael Dobbs' "House Of Cards" (TV screenplay) As to the presidency, the two happiest days of my life were those of my entrance upon the office and my surrender of it. - Martin Van Buren (1782 &endash; 1862) Politicians fascinate because they constitute such a paradox; they are an elite that accomplishes mediocrity for the public good. - George Will
The "right to be offended," at virtually any time and under nearly any set of circumstances, is considered to be one of the more sacrosanct contributions of political correctness. -- DONALD DEMARCO, Acting Niggardly Because I am a man, my opinion regarding the role of women in society no longer counts. Not because I'm not properly briefed regarding women's issues, but because I am a Christian, conservative, white male. Yes sir, I'm the new millennium's latest whipping boy … the receptacle of all society's ills … the pariah of postmodernism … the spawn of all societal sewage. - Doug Giles, Day Dreamin' Anti-Dude Dames, http://www.townhall.com/columnists/douggiles/dg20040424.shtml Political correctness is just tyranny with manners.--Charlton Heston, Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts March 28, 2000 We want to create a sort of linguistic Lourdes, where
evil and misfortune are dispelled by a dip in the waters of
euphemism. People find victimhood appealing because they believe it absolves them of their own misdeeds; it imbues them witha sense of righteousness. -- Wendy Kaminer Political correctness is the natural continuum from the party line. What we are seeing once again is a self-appointed group of vigilantes imposing their views on others. It is a heritage of communism, but they don't seem to see this.--Doris Lessing Remember, I live in Oregon. I am aware of the attitudes.
Political correctness is more righteous than the
righteousness of God. God is to blamed not worshipped. This
is the state that gives terminally ill people the right to
commit suicide, will pour out onto the beaches to save a
whale and will march for the right to abortion. You must take it as your sworn duty to do your utmost to prevent people from printing, voicing, writing or otherwise disseminating any communication which is either unfavorable to or not in agreement with Leftwing Liberal dogma and you must also strictly enforce Political Correctness, while at the same time doing your best to muzzle and silence those who don't agree with you. Tell adversaries to "Do as I say, and I'll do as I please!" This is not censorship, hypocrisy or Double Standards, but rather, "Freedom of Speech" an important Constitutional Amendment written to give Leftwing Liberals their God-given rights, even if they renounce and don't believe in God and even if they think rights are only for Leftwing Liberals. ~ The Official Leftwing Liberal Handbook ~ http://alohahawaii.home.att.net/leftwing.html Being Politically Correct means always having to say you're sorry. --Charles Osgood Considering "niggard" a racist word makes no more sense than saying that women personstruate. - Tom Parsons EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE A VICTIM. And the paradox is that victim status accrues precisely to those who can acquire enough clout to make others afraid of them. Victimhood has become one of the fruits of power. Anyone can be an underdog; the trick is to be a registered, pedigreed underdog. - Joseph Belloc Sobran
My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. Proverbs 1:10 The most damaging kind of pornography - and I'm talking from hard, real, personal experience - is that which involves violence and sexual violence. The wedding of those two forces - as I know only too well - brings about behavior that is too terrible to describe. - Ted Bundy The Hugh Hefner Curve: You start a magazine proclaiming that sex; so far from being dirty, is not even serious, it's just good clean fun. A few decades later you have massive abortions, vast numbers of illegitimate children born to teenagers from the poorest strata of society, and a delightful organisation named the "North American Man Boy Love Association" going on national T.V. to explain that your basic paedophile is not a pervert and child molester, but rather a lonely boy's best friend. David Carlin The use of pornography by its very nature isolates individuals-making them more intent on satisfying selfish needs. Once addicted, they could not throw off their dependence on the material by themselves despite many negative consequences such as divorce, and problems with the law. Being immersed in their fantasies, they tend to have an increasing sense that "everybody does it" and this gave them permission to also do it, even though the activity was possibly illegal and contrary to their previous moral beliefs. Afterwards, "they tend to act out sexually the behaviors viewed in the pornography, including compulsive promiscuity, exhibitionism, having sex with minor children, rape, and inflicting pain on themselves or a partner during sex.. This behavior grew into sexual addiction, which they found themselves locked into-no matter what the negative consequences were in their life. - Dr. Cline Pornography is the orchestrated destruction of women's bodies and souls; rape, battery, incest, and prostitution animate it; dehumanization and sadism characterize it; it is war on women, serial assaults on dignity, identity, and human worth; it is tyranny. Each woman who has survived knows from the experience of her own life that pornography is captivity -- the woman trapped in the picture used on the woman trapped wherever he's got her.--Andrea Dworkin What is at stake is civilization and humanity, nothing less. The idea that 'everything is permitted', as Nietzsche put it, rests on the premise of nihilism and has nihilistic implications. I will not pretend that the case against nihilism and for civilization is an easy one to make. We are here confronting the most fundamental of philosophical questions, on the deepest levels. In short, the matter of pornography and obscenity is not a trivial one, and only superficial minds can take a bland and untroubled view of it.- Irving KRISTOL, "Pornography, Obscenity and the Case for Censorship" from "On the Democratic Idea in America" New York: Harper & Row, 1972. In the United States, pornography is the third largest money-maker for organized crime - after drugs and gambling - an $8 - 10 billion per year enterprise. In response to the FBI's questions on the subject, 81 percent of serial killers surveyed said that hard-core pornography was their highest sexual interest. - William Marshall Catering to a sex craze sweeping across our world, authors, publishers, and movie moguls continue to reap the commercial benefits of their selfish pursuits. Gratification and graft have a hammer lock on many, many young minds and lives and have choked out needed spiritual awareness. Evil is out in the open. Sin has gained the privileged position. James Massey How do I know pornography depraves and corrupts? It depraves and corrupts me. Malcolm Muggeridge Vice is a monster of so frightful mein The victoms of pornography are boys and girls that have lost their innocence by viewing pornography at an early age. Wives of men preoccupied with pornography and the sex industry. Women who are being treated with disrespect and sexually abused. Young women trapped in an industry that exploits them and uses them as mere sex objects. Children used for the sexual satisfaction of fathers, stepfathers, and men they trusted. Young men exposed to a false image of sexuality. Men who just can't stop using pornography or stimulating themselves while recalling those images. A society that has become desensitized and dependent upon sex-charged images. Neighborhoods that have increased crime and decreased property values because of the proliferation of pornography in their communities. - Harry Schaumburg Pornography tells lies about women. But pornography tells the truth about men.--John Stoltenberge What good is an obscenity trial except to popularize literature? Rex Stout
All things are possible, except for skiing through a revolving door. The greatest waste in the world is the difference between what we are and what we could become.--Ben Herbster There is no heavier burden than a great potential. --Linus, "Peanuts"
Though volumes have been written both for and against deconstruction, not all critics agree that it deserves so much attention. If we suppose its basic premise that texts are only self-referential is true, then deconstruction self-destructs.....After all, the assertion that 'all texts are self-referential and refer to nothing outside the text,' if true, could only refer to itself; it would apply to no external texts whatsoever." -- Adam Devore The postmodern worldview denies that there is such a thing as truth: historical, moral, or otherwise. It denies that truth exists independently of our perspectives and interests. - Mark Earley, BreakPoint 08/13/2002 But the Left has truly mastered this art [of misrepresentation], perhaps because they get so much practice in university English departments. After all, if you can reduce the millions of pages of the Western canon into a bumper sticker of racism, sexism, and homophobia, how hard can it be to make a conservative sound racist when he talks about a "colorblind society" or "equal opportunity"?-- Jonah Goldberg We are the first generation bombarded with so many stories from so many "authorities," none of which are our own. The parable of the postmodern mind is the person surrounded by a media center: three television screens in front of them giving three sets of stories; fax machines bringing in other stories; newspapers providing still more stories. In a sense, we are saturated with stories; we're saturated with points of view. But the effect of being bombarded with all of these points of view is that we don't have a point of view and we don't have a story. We lose the continuity of our experiences; we become people who are written on from the outside. - Sam Keen (Story Lore) Perhaps it is being nostalgic for the 1960s, but occasionally I find much more noble existentialism's avowal of meaninglessness followed by despair than postmodernism's embrace of meaninglessness, followed by play, and ideological manipulations of the text. In a word, postmodernism reminds us that while God speaks an infallible authoritative word, our ability to interpret it is not without error. In other words, while the Bible itself comes from "above the sun," interpretation is an "under the sun" activity-- Tremper Longman III, READING THE BIBLE POSTMODERNLY There are no facts, only interpretations.... Frederick Wilhelm Nietzsche, (1844-1900) Postmodernism is the most fertile source of academic waffle since Aristotle; it has given a grateful world such completely incomprehensible and basically useless concepts as "deconstruction", "intertextuality" and indeed "postmodernism" itself. For self-styled cultural commentators bankrupt of particularly original ideas postmodern is a handy label to attach to anything in order to create he impression that one is saying something really radical. All this is helped by the fact that essentially no-one understands what postmodernism means, and therefore anything remotely contemporary can be tagged "postmodern." from Postmodern Culchie Base Camp Each of them (Foucault,Derrida,Rorty) owes his reputation to a kind of religious faith: faith in the relativity of all opinions, including this one. - Roger Scruton, The West and the Rest, ISI Books, 2002, p 75
I have taken a vow of poverty. To annoy me send money. Come away; poverty's catching. - Aphra Behn (1640 &endash; 1689) ..if the death of Christ on the cross is the true meaning of the Incarnation, then there is no gospel without the cross. Christmas by itself is no gospel. The life of Christ is no gospel. Even the resurrection, important as it is in the total scheme of things, is no gospel by itself. For the good news is not just that God became man, nor that God has spoken to reveal a proper way of life for us, or even that death, the great enemy, is conquered. Rather, the good news is that sin has been dealt with (of which the resurrection is a proof); that Jesus has suffered its penalty for us as our representative, so that we might never have to suffer it; and that therefore all who believe in him can look forward to heaven. ...Emulation of Christ s life and teaching is possible only to those who enter into a new relationship with God through faith in Jesus as their substitute. The resurrection is not merely a victory over death (though it is that) but a proof that the atonement was a satisfactory atonement in the sight of the Father (Rom 4:25); and that death, the result of sin, is abolished on that basis. Any gospel that talks merely of the Christ-event, meaning the Incarnation without the atonement, is a false gospel. Any gospel that talks about the love of God without pointing out that his love led him to pay the ultimate price for sin in the person of his Son on the cross is a false gospel. The only true gospel is of the one mediator (1 Tim. 2:5-6), who gave himself for us. Finally, just as there can be no gospel without the atonement as the reason for the Incarnation, so also there can be no Christian life without it. Without the atonement the Incarnation themeeasily becomes a kind of deification of the human and leads to arrogance and self advancement. With the atonement the true message of the life of Christ, and therefore also of the the life of the Christian man or woman, is humility and self sacrifice for the obvious needs of others. The Christian life is not indifference to those who are hungry or sick or suffering from some other lack. It is not contentment with our own abundance, neither the abundance of middle class living with home and cars and clothes and vacations, nor the abundance of education or even the spiritual abundance of good churches, Bibles, Bible teaching or Christian friends and acquaintances. Rather, it is the awareness that others lack these things and that we must therefore sacrifice many of our own interests in order to identify with them and thus bring them increasingly into the abundance we enjoy...We will live for Christ fully only when we are willing to be impoverished, if necessary, in order that others might be helped.--JAMES MONTGOMERY BOICE, Foundations of the Christian Faith A greater poverty than that caused by money is the poverty of unawareness. Men and women go about the world unaware of the goodness, the beauty, the glories in it. Their souls are poor. It is better to have a poor pocketbook than to suffer from a poor soul. Thomas Dreier The poor man wishes to conceal his poverty, and the rich man his wealth: the former fears lest he be despised, the latter lest he be plundered. - Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach Give, Sympathise, Control - T S Eliot, The Wasteland I used to think I was poor. Then they told me I wasn't poor, I was needy. Then they told me it was self-defeating to think of myself as needy. I was deprived. (Oh not deprived but rather underprivileged) Then they told me that underprivileged was overused. I was disadvantaged. I still don't have a dime. But I have a great vocabulary. Jules Feiffer Neither great poverty nor great riches will hear reason. Henry Fielding I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means.I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer. - Benjamin Franklin, in "The Encouragement of Idleness," 1766 The poor on the borderline of starvation live purposeful lives. To be engaged in a desperate struggle for food and shelter is to be wholly free from a sense of futility.--Eric Hoffer (1902-1983)_The True Believer_ [1951] The inevitable consequence of poverty is dependence. Samuel Johnson: Dryden (Lives of the Poets) Poverty will enforce dependence, and invite corruption; it will almost always produce a passive compliance with the wickedness of others; and there are few who do not learn by degrees to practise those crimes which they cease to censure.- Samuel Johnson: Rambler #57 What signifies, says some one, giving halfpence to beggars? they only lay it out in gin or tobacco. "And why should they be denied such sweeteners of their existence (says Johnson)? it is surely very savage to refuse them every possible avenue to pleasure, reckoned too coarse for our own acceptance. Life is a pill which none of us can bear to swallow without gilding; yet for the poor we delight in stripping it still barer, and are not ashamed to shew even visible displeasure, if ever the bitter taste is taken from their mouths." -- Hester Thrale Piozzi: Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson He that pines with hunger, is in little care how others shall be fed.The poor man is seldom studious to make his grandson rich. - Samuel Johnson: Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads
and empty hearts can do that. |
