 |
|
 |
tact talent talking tax tea teacher teeth telephone temptation terrorism Thanksgiving Thatcher theology theory thinking time titles toasts tolerance tongue total depravity totalitarian tourism tradition transcendence travel trinity trolls trust truth TV typing tyranny
Tact is the ability to tell a man he has an open mind when he has a hole in his head.
Tact is rubbing out another's mistake instead of rubbing it in. --Farmer's Almanac
A diplomat is a man who can convince his wife she'd look stout in a fur coat.
Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie!'... till you can find a rock.
Diplomacy - the art of letting someone have your way.
Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy.
Don't hide your light, or you may burn yourself!
Teach your students to use what talents they have; the woods would be silent if no bird sang except those that sing best.
Those talents which God has bestowed upon us are not our own goods but the free gifts of God; and any persons who become proud of them show their ungratefulness. ... John Calvin (1509-1564)
Everyone has talent at twenty-five. The difficulty is to have it at fifty.-- Degas
It is in men as in soils where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of. - Jonathan Swift, 1667 - 1745
Lord, fill my mouth with worthwhile stuff;
and, nudge me when I have said enough.
To do all the talking and not be willing to listen is a form of greed. -- Democritus of Abdera, 4th-5th century B. C.
Nothing lowers the level of conversation more than raising the voice. -Stanley Horowitz
If we would talk less and pray more about them, things would be be better than they are in the world; at least, we should be better enabled to bear them. JOHN OWEN
It is with narrow-souled people as with narrow-necked bottles: the less they have in them, the more noise they make in pouring it out. ~Alexander Pope, Miscellanies Vol 2 (1727)
A full tongue and an empty brain are seldom parted. - Francis Quarles
There is nothing so annoying as to have two people talking when you're busy interrupting. --- Mark Twain
I like to do all the talking myself. It saves time and prevents arguments. ~ Oscar Wilde, The Remarkable Rocket.
An old saying has it that there are three things we should not discuss in polite company: sex, politics and religion. We don't follow this advice when it comes to sex and politics. Sexuality, especially in the context of relationships, is an everyday topic of conversation. Office and national politics are discussed constantly. The third theme alone is missing. Next time you're at a party, try sidling up to someone, drink in hand, and ask, "So what do you think about God, anyway?" You will quickly find yourself alone. Everyone has his or her own ideas about God, we are told. But that is equally true of sex and politics. The truth seems to be that most of us have lost the knack for talking about the deepest issues of life. This lack impoverishes our conversation and, ultimately, our lives as well. David J. Wolpe
The primary requisite for any new tax law is for it to exempt enough voters to win the next election.
President Reagan has noted that there are too many economic pundits and forecasters and has decided on an excess prophets tax.
A socialist and your taxes are both soon wasted
WORK HARDER!... Millions on welfare depend on YOU!!!
Where there's a will, there's an Inheritance Tax.
A fine is a tax on doing wrong; a tax is a fine on doing well.
Harbour, n. A place where ships taking shelter from storms are exposed to the fury of the Customs.The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose
To tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men. --Edmund Burke
Those who steal from private individuals spend their lives in stocks and chains; those who steal from the public treasure go dressed in gold and purple. -- Marcius Porcius Cato (The Elder)
We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle." --Winston Churchill (1903)
The tendency of taxation is to create a class of persons who do not labor, to take from those who do labor the produce of that labor, and to give it to those who do not labor. --William Cobbett
The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the least amount of hissing. -Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619 &endash; 1683) (attrib.)
I don't like the income tax. Every time we talk about these taxes we get around to the idea of 'from each according to his capacity and to each according to his needs'. That's socialism. It's written into the Communist Manifesto. Maybe we ought to see that every person who gets a tax return receives a copy of the Communist Manifesto with it so he can see what's happening to him. --Andrews T. Coleman Commissioner of Internal Revenue, U.S. News & World Report (May 25, 1956)
When Barbary Pirates demand a fee for allowing you to do business, it's called 'tribute money'. When the Mafia demands a fee for allowing you to do business, it's called 'the protection racket'. When the State demands a fee for allowing you to do business, it's called 'sales tax'.? --Jeff Daiell
The politicians don't just want your money. They want your soul. They want you to be worn down by taxes until you are dependent and helpless.--James Dale Davidson, of the National Taxpayers Union
The one thing that hurts more than having to pay income tax is not having to pay income tax.-- Thomas R. Dewar
The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.-- Albert Einstein
IAs all history informs us, there has been in every State & Kingdom a constant kind of warfare between the governing & governed: the one striving to obtain more for its support, and the other to pay less. And this has alone occasioned great convulsions, actual civil wars, ending either in dethroning of the Princes, or enslaving of the people. Generally indeed the ruling power carries its point, the revenues of princes constantly increasing, and we see that they are never satisfied, but always in want of more. The more the people are discontented with the oppression of taxes; the greater need the prince has of money to distribute among his partisans and pay the troops that are to suppress all resistance, and enable him to plunder at pleasure. here is scarce a king in a hundred who would not, if he could, follow the example of Pharaoh, get first all the peoples money, then all their lands, and then make them and their children servants for ever. --Ben Franklin Addressing the Constitutional Convention (June 2, 1787)
I think that I shall never see
A tax form plain enough for me.
A form that I can understand
without a lawyer near at hand
to guide this poor benighted me
so I won't own a pen-al-ty.
A form that I will not detest
or take as more than awful jest.
A form with pages I can read
and fill out ea-si-ly with speed
Such forms weren't made for fools like me
Nor ever God who made a tree.
(San Francisco Examiner, 1989)
The age of the quiet taxpayer is peacefully drawing to its close &endash; the time when we, as politicians, can happily put our hands into taxpayers' pockets and draw out at will is passing and will continue to pass with greater speed.-- Frank Field The Times 21.5.97
All taxes are a drag on economic growth. It’s only a question of degree.--Alan Greenspan
Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors -- and miss."--Robert A. Heinlein, _Time Enough for Love_ p.366
To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the
propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is
sinful and tyrannical.
Thomas Jefferson: Statute for Religious Freedom, 1779.
Papers, 1:545
Thee avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that carries any reward.- John Maynard Keynes
If Thomas Jefferson thought taxation without representation was bad, he should see how it is with representation. - Rush Limbaugh (1951 &endash; )
Nothing in life is certain except Negative Patient Care Outcome and Revenue Enhancement. -- William Lutz, _DoubleSpeak_
The only thing worse than paying income tax is not paying income tax. --Donald Macleod
It is perfectly possible...to revive even in our day the fiscal tyranny which once left even European populations in doubt whether it was worth while preserving life by thrift and toil...You have only to take the heart out of those who would willingly labor and save, by taxing them ad misercordiam for the most laudable philanthropic objects. -- Sir Henry Sumner Maine The Prospects of Popular Government
It makes not the smallest difference to the motives of the thrifty and industrious part of mankind whether their fiscal oppressor be an Eastern despot, or a feudal baron, or a democratic legislature, and whether they are taxed for the benefit of a Corporation called Society, or for the advantage of an individual styled King or Lord. -- Sir Henry Sumner Maine The Prospects of Popular Government
A Progressive is one who is in favor of more taxes instead of less, more bureaus and jobholders, more paternalism and meddling, more regulation of private affairs and less liberty. In general, he would be inclined to regard the repeal of any tax as outrageous. --H. L. Mencken Baltimore Evening Sun (1/19/1926)
To tax the larger incomes at a higher percentage than the smaller, is yo lay a tax on industry and economy; to impose a penalty on people for having worked harder and saved more than their neighbors. --John Stuart Mill
To lay with one hand the power of government on the property of a citizen, and with the other to bestow it on favored individuals ... is none the less robbery because it was done under the forms of law and is called taxation. --U.S. Supreme Court Justice Miller, Loan Association vs. Topeka, 20 Wall, (87 US) 664 (1874)
Marx and Engels openly declared that the progressive income tax and the death tax are 'economically untenable' and that they advocated them only because 'they necessitate further inroads' upon the capitalist system and are 'unavoidable' as a means of bringing about socialism. --Ludwig von Mises (1958)
Taxation of earnings from labor is on a par with forced labor. Some persons find this claim obviously true: taking the earnings of N hours labor is like taking N hours from the person; it is like forcing the person to work N hours for another's purpose. Others find the claim absurd. But even these, IF they object to forced labor, would oppose forcing unemployed hippies to work for the benefit of the needy. And they would also object to forcing each person to work five extra hours each week for the benefit of the needy. But a system that takes five hours' wages in taxes does not seem to them like one that forces someone to work five hours .... -- Robert Nozick, ANARCHY, STATE, UTOPIA (p.169)
Taxpayers are people who don't have to take a civil service examination to work for the government. --Red O'Donnell
Patrick Henry should come back to see what taxation WITH representation is like. -- Bob Phillips
The taxpayer -- that's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take a civil-service exam. --Ronald W. Reagan
A government policy to rob Peter to pay Paul can be assured of the support of Paul -- George Bernard Shaw
Dear IRS,
Please remove me from your mailing list.
Snoopy
What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? The taxidermist takes only your skin. -- Mark Twain
I view the tea-drinking as a destroyer of health, an enfeebler of the frome, an engender of effeminacy and laziness, a debaucher of youth and maker of misery for old age.~William Cobbett (1762-1835), The Vice of Tea-Drinking
The tea drinking has done a great deal in bringing this nation into the state of misery in which it now is, it must be evident to every one that the practice of tea drinking must render the frame feeble, and unfit to encounter hard labour or severe weather, while . . . it deducts from the means of replenishing the belly and covering the back. Hence succeeds a softness, an effeminacy, a seeking for the fireside, a lurking in the bed, and, in short, all the characteristics of idleness.William Cobbett , Cottage Economy 1822
You may teach what you know, but you can only reproduce what you are.
A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. Henry Brooks Adams "The Education of Henry Adams"
A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary. Thomas Carruthers
If you would know anything thoroughly, teach it to others. Tryon Edwards
Behind almost every great man there stands either a good parent or a good teacher. - Gilbert Highet
Imparting knowledge is only lighting other men's candles at our lamp without depriving ourselves of any flame. --Jane Porter
He taught me to teach myself, which is the greatest thing a teacher can do. - Isaac Stern (1920 &endash; 2001)
It is noble to teach oneself, but still nobler to teach others and less trouble. Mark Twain
Uneasy is the tooth that wears a crown.
Love conquers all things except poverty and toothache -- Mae West
There are worse things than getting a call for the wrong number at 4 AM. It could be the right number.- Doug Larson
All the water in the world, however hard it tries, can never sink the smallest ship unless it gets inside, and all the evil in the world, the blackest kind of sin, can never hurt you in the least, unless you let it in.
If you have been tempted into evil, fly from it. It is not falling into the water, but lying in it, that drowns.
The devil's boots don't creak..
Flee temptation and don´t leave a forwarding address.
The stomach is easier filled than the eye. -- German Proverb
My soul is more at rest from the tempter when I am busily employed. --Francis Asbury
Whatever good is to be attained, struggle is necessary. So do not fear temptations, but rejoice in them, for they lead to achievement. God helps and protects you. St. Barsanuphius
The heart of man is revealed in temptation. Man knows his
sin, which without temptation he could never have known; for
in temptation man knows on what he has set his heart. The
coming to light of sin is the work of the accuser, who
thereby thinks to have won the victory. But it is sin which
is become manifest which can be known, and therefore
forgiven. Thus the manifestation of sin belongs to the
salvation plan of God with man, and Satan must serve this
plan.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Temptation
Only he who flings himself upward when the pull comes to drag him down, can hope to break the force of temptation. Temptation may be an invitation to hell, but much more is it an opportunity to reach heaven. At the moment of temptation, sin and righteousness are both very near the Christian; but, of the two, the latter is the nearer.... Charles H. Brent (1862-1929)
Lead me not into temptation; I can find the way myself. --Rita Mae Brown
Therefore behoveth him a full long spoon,
That shall eat with a fend.
Chaucer
Full wise is he that can himselven know. -- Chaucer The Monkes Tale. Line 1449.
The devil is always suggesting that we compromise our high calling by substituting the good in place of the best. --William Sloane Coffin, Jr. (1924- ) _Credo_ [2004], "Life In General"
Unwillingness to accept God's "way of escape" from temptation frightens me - what a rebel yet resides within.-- JIM ELLIOT
As the Sandwich-Islander believes that the strength and valour of the enemy he kills passes into himself, so we gain the strength of the temptations we resist. Ralph Waldo Emerson
She was a weak woman - too highly elated in prosperity,
too easily depressed by adversity - not considering that
both are situations of trial .
Sarah Josepha Hale (1788-1879) "Walter Wilson," in "Sketches
of American Character," 1829.
No man knows how bad he is until he has tried to be good.
There is a silly idea about that good people don't know what
temptation means.
C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) The Screwtape Letters
The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him,for he cannot bear scorn. Martin Luther
In the worst temptations nothing can help us but faith that God's Son has put on flesh, is bone, sits at the right hand of the Father, and prays for us. There is no mightier comfort.--Martin Luther
Almost every night when I wake up the devil is there and wants to dispute with me. I have come to this conclusion: When the argument that the Christian is without the law and above the law doesn't help, I instantly chase him away with a fart.--Martin Luther (1483-1546), Luther's Works, Volume 54, Table Talk_ [1967], Number 469)
In this sort of temptation and struggle, contempt is the
best and easiest method of winning over the devil. Laugh
your adversary to scorn and ask who it is with whom you are
talking. But by all means flee solitude, for the devil
watches and lies in wait for you most of all when you are
alone. This devil is conquered by mocking and despising him,
not by resisting and arguing with him. Therefore, Jerome,
joke and play games with your wife and others. In this way
you will drive out your diabolical thoughts and take
courage
Be of good courage, therefore, and cast these dreadful
thoughts out of your mind. Whenever the devil pesters you
with these thoughts, at once seek out the company of men,
drink more, joke and jest, or engage in some other form of
merriment. Sometimes it is necessary to drink a little more,
play, jest, or even commit some infraction in defiance and
contempt of the devil in order not to give him an
opportunity to make us scrupulous about trifles. We shall be
overcome if we worry too much about falling into some
sin.
Accordingly if the devil should say, "Do not drink," you
should reply to him, "On this very account, because you
forbid it, I shall drink, and what is more, I shall drink a
generous amount." Thus one must always do the opposite of
that which Satan prohibits. What do you think is my reason
for drinking wine undiluted, talking freely, and eating more
often, if it is not to torment and vex the devil who made up
his mind to torment and vex me. --Luther
I know well that when Christ is nearest, Satan also is busiest. --ROBERT MURRAY McCHEYNE
I am tempted to think that I am now an established Christian,--that I have overcome this or that lust so long,--that I have got into the habit of the opposite grace,--so that there is no fear; I may venture very near the temptation--nearer than other men. This is a lie of Satan. One might as well speak of gunpowder getting by habit of resisting fire, so as not to catch spark. As long as powder is wet, it resists the spark; but when it becomes dry, it is ready to explode at the first touch. As long as the Spirit dwells in my heart, He deadens me to sin, so that, if lawfully called through temptation, I may reckon upon God carrying me through. But when the Spirit leaves me, I am like dry gunpowder. Oh for a sense of this!" -- ROBERT M M'CHEYNE
Subtle he needs must be, who could seduce Angels.
John Milton. 1608-1674. Paradise Lost. Book IX, 307 - 08
The devil... the prowde spirit cannot endure to be mocked. --Thomas More
Never... think we have a due knowledge of ourselves till
we have been exposed to various kinds of temptations, and
tried on every side. Integrity on one side of our character
is no voucher for integrity on another. We cannot tell how
we should act if brought under temptations different from
those we have hitherto experienced. This thought should keep
us humble. We are sinners, but we do not know how great. He
alone knows who died for our sins.
John Henry Newman (1801-1890)
Temptations and occasions put nothing into a man, but only draw out what was in him before. Temptation is like a knife, that may either cut the meat or the throat of a man; it may be his food or his poison, his exercise or his destruction.--John Owen
Steadfastness in believing doth not exclude all temptations from without. When we say a tree is firmly rooted, we do not say the wind never blows upon it.... John Owen (1616-1683)
It is much easier to suppress a first desire than to satisfy those that follow -- La Rochefoucauld
One great remedy against all manner of temptation, great or small, is to open the heart and lay bare its suggestion, likings, and dislikings before some spiritual adviser; for, ... the first condition which the Evil One makes with a soul, when he wants to entrap it, is silence. ... Francois de Sales (1567-1622)
It is not we who overcome the world in our own strength. We do not have a power plant inside ourselves that can overcome the world. The overcoming is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, as we have already seen. There can be a victory, a practical victory, if we raise the empty hands of faith moment by moment and accept the gift. „This is the victory that overcometh the world. God has promised, and the Bible has said, that there is a way to escape temptation. By God‚s grace we should want that escape.- Francis Schaeffer
Learn to say "no." It will be of more use to you than to be able to read Latin. --Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)
Some temptations come to the industrious, but all temptations attack the idle. -- C.H. SPURGEON
Satan watches for those vessels that sail without convoy. GEORGE SWINNOCK
Forbidden things have a secret charm. --Tacitus
I know God won't give me anything I can't handle. I just wish He didn't trust me so much. Mother Teresa
Be not afraid that thou art tempted, for the more thou art assailed by temptations, the greater friend and servant of God do I hold thee, and the greater love do I bear thee. Verily, I say to thee, let no man deem himself the perfect friend of God until he have passed through many temptations and tribulations... I am ready to endure patiently all things that my Lord would do with me.-- Ugolino of Montegiorgio (d.1274), The Little Flowers of St. Francis
How soon are we broken on the soft pillow of ease! Adam in paradise was overcome, when Job on the dunghill was a conqueror. - THOMAS WATSON
It is most desirable, to have neither poverty nor riches; but still you cannot be without temptation, unless you would go out of the world.- John Wesley, letter: DECEMBER 1, 1773
The higher the hill, the stronger the wind: so the loftier the life,the stronger the enemy's temptations.----John Wycliffe (?1330-1384) in The Lion Christian Quotation Collection, 1997
Breaking the link between terrorism and religious ideology is difficult.- Eliza Manningham-Buller, MI5's director-general, at the Royal United Services Institute conference in central London 16 June 2003
(That all the People may with united Hearts on that Day express a just Sense of His unmerited Favors -- Particularly in that it hath pleased Him, by His over ruling Providence to support us in a just and necessary War for the Defence of our Rights and Liberties; ...by defeating the Councils and evil Designs of our Enemies, and giving us Victory over their Troops -- and by the Continuance of that Union among these States, which by his Blessing, will be their future Strength & Glory. --Samuel Adams on behalf of the Continental Congress, November 3, 1778
Thanksgiving) 'Twas founded be th' Puritans to give thanks f'r bein' presarved fr'm th' Indyans, an' . . . we keep it to give thanks we are presarved fr'm th' Puritans. Finley Peter Dunne (Mr. Doole
The closer you got to Margaret, the more attractive you found her character because you heard about the small kindnesses to individuals, the consideration she showed to people whom nobody had heard of. - William Deedes in Brenda Maddox, Maggie the First Lady, p108
The grocer's daughter - French President Valery Giscard d'Estang on Margaret Thatcher, Brenda Maddox, Maggie the First Lady, p187
Even her closest allies were not safe from her sharp tongue. "I remember",says Deedes,"Airey (Neeve) walking out of a meeting saying that he'd never been spoken at so rudely in his life before." (That superlative was impressive from a man who had been in Colditz.) - Brenda Maddox, Maggie the First Lady, p108
We're a cavalry regiment led by a corporal in the Women's Royal Army Corps - An unidentified Conservative leader on Margaret Thatcher as their newly elected leader, quoted by Cecil Parkinson in Brenda Maddox, Maggie the First Lady, p125
... she ( Margaret Thatcher )is democratic enough to talk down to anyone - Austin Mitchell
An appalling person to work with but she was a wonderful person to work for. - Matthew Parris in Brenda Maddox, Maggie the First Lady, p105
I stand before you tonight in my Red Star chiffon evening gown, my face softly made up, and my fai hair gently waved: the Iron Lady of the Western World! - Margaret Thatcher , speech in Finchley 31 Jan 1976, after the Red Army newspaper had given her the name.
I an the rebel head of an Establishment government - Margaret Thatcher quoted in Hugo Young, One of Us: A Biography of Margaret Thatcher p. 242
It was the religious writing of that High Anglican C.S.Lewis which had most impact upon my intellectual religious formation.--Margaret Thatcher, The Path to Power, Harper Collins,1995, p40
All my theology is reduced to this narrow compass-- Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.--Archibald Alexander (1772-1851)
In the Church of Jesus Christ there can and should be no non-theologians -- Karl Barth
The theologian who has no joy in his work is not a theologian at all. Sulky faces, morose thoughts and boring ways of speaking are intolerable in this science. --Karl Barth (1886-1968) (Quoted in his obituary, _New York Times_ [December 11, 1968])
Theology is but our ideas of truth classified and arranged.-- Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) In "Correct Quotes for DOS," WordStar International, 1991.
Wherefore all theology, when separated from Christ, is not only vain and confused, but is also mad, deceitful, and spurious; for, though the philosophers sometimes utter excellent sayings, yet they have nothing but what is short-lived, and even mixed up with wicked and erroneous sentiments. JOHN CALVIN
A man may be theologically knowing and spiritually ignorant. - STEPHEN CHARNOCK
Dogma does not mean the absence of thought, but the end of thought. -- G KChesterton
What the denouncer of dogma really means is not that dogma is bad; but rather that dogma is too good to be true.G K Chesterton, _The Everlasting Man_
In truth, there are only two kinds of people; those who accept dogma and know it, and those who accept dogma and don't know it. G K Chesterton
It is indeed a fathomless mystery of theology, and even if I were theologian enough to deal with it directly, it would not be relevant to do so here. Suffice it to say here that this triple enigma is as comforting as wine and open as an English fireside; that this thing that bewilders the intellect utterly quiets the heart: but out of the desert, from the dry places and, the dreadful suns, come the cruel children of the lonely God; the real Unitarians who with scimitar in hand have laid waste the world. For it is not well for God to be alone. --G. K. Chesterton,_Orthodoxy_ ch. 8 (1908)
Doctrine is the framework of life - the skeleton of truth, to be clothed and rounded out by the living grace of a holy life. ~ Adoniram J. Gordon
One man's theology is another man's belly laugh.-- Robert Heinlein
Theology, not morality, is the first business on the
church's agenda of reform, and the church, not society, is
the first target of divine criticism.
Michael Scott Horton, Beyond Culture Wars
The [Christian] "doctrines" are translations into our concepts and ideas of that which God has already expressed inlanguage more adequate, namely the actual incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection.... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), letter
What makes some theological works like sawdust to me is the way the authors can go on discussing how far certain positions are adjustable to contemporary thought, or beneficial in relation to social problems, or "have a future" before them, but never squarely ask what grounds we have for supposing them to be true accounts of any objective reality. As if we were trying to make rather than to learn. Have we no Other to reckon with?... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)
Insofar as theology is an attempt to define and clarify intellectual positions, it is apt to lead to discussion, to differences of opinion, even to controversy, and hence to be divisive. And this has had a strong tendency to dampen serious discussion of theological issues in most groups, and hence to strengthen the general anti-intellectual bias inherent in much of revivalistic Pietism... "Fundamentalism" in America, among other things, was a movement that tried to recall these denominations to theological and confessional self consciousness. But it was defeated in every major denomination, not so much by theological discussion and debate as by effective political manipulations directed by denominational leaders to the sterilizing of this "divisive" element. ... Sidney E. Mead in Church History [1954]
How charming is divine philosophy!
Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose,
But musical as is Apollo's lute,
And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets
Where no crude surfeit reigns.
--John Milton (1608-1674) _Comuso_ [1634], Line
476
Dogma has been the fundamental principle of my religion. . . . Religion, as mere sentiment, is to me a mockery. -- Cardinal Newman
The foundation of true holiness and true Christian worship is the doctrine of the gospel, what we are to believe. So when Christian doctrine is neglected, forsaken, or corrupted, true holiness and worship will also be neglected, forsaken, and corrupted. John Owen (1616-1683)
Berkoff writes to give ides about God but Calvin writes to give knowledge of God.-- J Packer
Live to explain thy doctrine by thy life.~Matthew Prior: Dr Sherlock
It is worse than useless for Christians to talk about the importance of Christian morality unless they are prepared to take their stand upon the fundamentals of Christian theology. -- Dorothy Sayers
Doctrinal rightness and rightness of ecclesiastical position are important, but only as a starting point to go on into a living relationship -- and not as ends in themselves. -- Francis Schaeffer
It is not for a moment that we can begin to get anywhere until the right doctrines are taught. But the right doctrines mentally assented to are not an end in themselves, but should only be the vestibule to a personal and loving communion with God. -- Francis A. Schaeffer, Letters Of Francis Schaeffer
To say we want no dogmas in religion is to assert a dogma.--Fulton J. Sheen, _Religion Without God_, 1928
From time immemorial men have quenched their thirst with water without knowing anything about its chemical constituents. In like manner we do not need to be instructed in all the mysteries of doctrine, but we do need to receive the Living Water which Jesus Christ will give us and which alone can satisfy our souls. - Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929)
Our anthropology is intimately bound up with our theology. If God is dead, man is too. If we are not accountable, then we do not count. R. C. SPROUL
Christian communities that maintain their doctrinal identity and moral boundaries flourish in the modern world; Christian communities that fudge doctrine and morals decay. Contrary to much popular wisdom, the Christian movement is flourishing throughout the world. And in all instances, without exception, it is the Christian communities that eschew Lite approaches to doctrine and morals that are growing. ---- George Weigel, _The Courage to be Catholic_, 2002
The devil is a better theologian than any of us and is a devil still.--Aiden Wilson Tozer (1897-1963)_Man, the Dwelling Place of God_
It is the theory that decides what can be observed.-Albert Einstein, 1879 - 1955
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But in practice, there is.-- Jan van de Snepscheut
A conclusion is simply the place where you got tired of thinking.
Don't be so open-minded your brains fall out.
I don't think so," said René Descartes. Just then, he vanished.
I just got lost in thought. It was unfamiliar territory.
We would worry less about what people think of us, if we knew how seldom they did!
Dwell not upon thy weariness, thy strength shall be according to the measure of thy desire. -- Arab Proverb
Man's mind is a watch that needs winding daily. -- Welsh Proverb
Thought means life, since those who do not think so do not live in any high or real sense. Thinking makes the man.-- Amos Bronson Alcott (1799-1888)
Thinking is sometimes injurious to health. -- Aristotle
Our life is what our thoughts make it.-- Marcus Aurelius (121-180 A.D.)
And the bartender says to Rene Descartes, 'Another beer?' And Descartes says, 'I think not,' and disappears. - Alfred Bester (1913 &endash;-1987)
The average person thinks he isn't. -- Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), "The Devil's Dictionary", 1911:
No, no, you're not thinking, you're just being logical. -Niels Bohr, physicist (1885-1962)
Stung by the splendour of a sudden thought. Robert Browning (1812-1889) "A Death in the Desert."
A man cannot think himself out of mental evil, for it is actually the organ of thought that has become diseased, ungovernable, and, as it were, independent. He can only be saved by faith or will. The moment his mere reason moves, it moves in the old circular rut. -- G K Chesterton
The mind of each man is the man himself. -- Marcus Tullius Cicero
Absence of occupation is not rest,
A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.:
William Cowper (1731-1800) Retirement, 623
Aristotle was famous for knowing everything. He taught that the brain exists merely to cool the blood and is not involved in the process of thinking. This is true only of certain persons. Will Cuppy (1884 &endash; 1949)
Leave Him [God] out of our explanations, and the life of thought is decapitated... Without God, everything dries up. ... Martin C. D'Arcy (1888-1976)
There are some days I practise positive thinking and some days I am not positive I am thinking. ~ John M. Eades
What we plant in the soil of contemplation, we shall reap in the harvest of action.... Meister Eckhart, Body, Mind and Spirit
My brother, sister, friend - read, study, think, and read again. You were made to think. It will do you good to think; to develop your powers by study. God designed that religion should require thought, intense thought, and should thoroughly develop our powers of thought.-- Charles G. Finney
Thought is fugitive; the mind does not repeat itself; if you do not catch the whisperings of the oracle as they come to you, they are lost forever. You must--and this is absolutely essential--convince yourselves that what is offered you this very moment will never be offered again. --Jean Guitton (1901-1999) _A Student's Guide to Intellectual Work_ [1951], Chapter Eight: "Notes and Courses"
An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anything into an empty head." ~ Eric Hoffer
Rule your mind or it will rule you.-- Horace
Most people's minds are like concrete- thoroughly mixed and permanently set. - Seen outside a Manchester church, by David Jackman, in The Communicators Commentary, Ruth 2.
Then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.
John Keats
Reading furnishes the mind only with materials for knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours. -- John Locke
Machines should work. People should think-- Larry Lorenzoni
"It is a great mistake ... to suppose that we who are called 'conservatives' hold desperately to certain beliefs merely because they are old, and are opposed to the discovery of new facts. On the contrary, we welcome new discoveries with all our hearts, and we believe that our cause will come to its rights again only when youth throws off its present intellectual lethargy, refuses to go thoughtlessly with the anti-intellectual current of the age, and recovers some genuine independence of mind. In one sense, indeed, we are traditionalists ... But on the whole, in view of the conditions that now exist, it would perhaps be more correct to call us 'radicals' than to call us 'conservatives' ... We are seeking in particular to arouse youth from its present uncritical repetition of current phrases into some genuine examination of the basis of life; and we believe that Christianity flourishes not in the darkness, but in the light. A revival of the Christian religion, we believe, will deliver mankind from its present bondage. Such a revival will not be the work of man, but the work of the Spirit of God. But one of the means which the Spirit will use, we believe, is an awakening of the intellect ... The new Reformation, in other words, will be accompanied by a new Renaissance; and the last thing in the world that we desire to do is to discourage originality or independence of mind. J. Greshem Machen
Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one. Charles Mackay
Now there's a man with an open mind - you can feel the breeze from here! Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx 1890 - 1977
Every thought is a seed. If you plant crab apples,don't count on harvesting Golden Delicious. -- Bill Meyer
When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it. --A. A. Milne, _The House at Pooh Corner_
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.
John Milton, Paradise Lost
She ransacked her mind but there was nothing in it.
Joyce Carol Oates (1938-____) "Them," pt. 1 ch. 15,
1969.
An Englishman thinks seated; a Frenchman, standing; an American, pacing; an Irishman, afterward. Austin O'Malley
There was a young student called Fred
Who was questioned on Descartes and said:
'It's perfectly clear
That I'm not really here,
For I haven't a thought in my head.
V. R. Ormerod
The Evangelical is not afraid of facts, for he knows that all facts are God's facts; nor is he afraid of thinking, for he knows that all truth is God's truth, and right reason cannot endanger sound faith. He is called to love God with all his mind; and part of what this means is that, when confronted by those who, on professedly rational grounds, take exception to historic Christianity, he must set himself not merely to deplore or denounce them, but to out-think them. It is not his business to argue men into faith, for that cannot be done; but it is his business to demonstrate the intellectual adequacy of the biblical faith and the comparative inadequacy of its rivals, and to show the invalidity of the criticisms that are brought against it. This he seeks to do, not from any motive of intellectual self-justification, but for the glory of God and of His gospel. A confident intellectualism expressive of robust faith in God, whose Word is truth, is part of the historic evangelical tradition. If present-day Evangelicals fall short of this, they are false to their own principles and heritage. - J. I. PACKER
You can think best when you're happiest. Dorothy Parker (1893-1967)
There is only one quality worse than hardness of heart and that is softness of head.- Theodore Roosevelt, 1858 - 1919
Change your thoughts, and you change your world.
Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993) in "The Book of Success,"
ed. Richard Shea, 1993.
You say that my way of thinking cannot be tolerated? What of it? The man who alters his way of thinking to suit others is a fool. My way of thinking is the result of my reflections. It is part of my inner being, the way I am made. I do not contradict them, and would not even if I wished to. For my system, which you disapprove of, is also my greatest comfort in life, the source of all my happiness - it means more to me than my life itself. -- The Marquis de Sade
Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence. -- Thomas Szasz
Thoughts have power. Thoughts are energy. You can make your world or break it by your thinking. - Susan Taylor
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. Henry David Thoreau, Walden(1854),I,Economy
A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.-- Oscar Wilde
So many pedestrians, so little time.
Give us back our eleven days!
Popular cry in England after the adoption of the Gregorian
calendar. 2 September 1752 was immediately followed by 14
September 1752.
Hours are Time's shafts, and one comes winged with death. --Scottish Clock Motto
Loss and Possession, Death and Life are one.
There falls no shadow where there shines no sun.
Inscription on sundialI am a shadow, so art thou,
I mark the time, dost thou?
Inscription on sundialWhen thou dost look upon my face,
To learn the time of day:
Think how my shadow keeps its pace,
As thy life flies away.
Take, mortal this advice from me
And so resolve to spend
They life on earth, that heaven shall be
Thy home when time shall end.
Inscription on sundial
You can't turn back the clock but you can wind it up again.
You will find the key to success under the alarm clock.
You can find the time for the people and things that are most important to you.
How dreadfully silent is the ticking of time
Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, (121-180), Roman Emperor
It dawns on me more and more how trivial and short our lifespan is. It is like smoke; it is like a flower, it is like grass, it is like a butterfly&emdash;for it passes so quickly, flying away. Nobody, no one can bring back wasted years. One wishes that one would have always lived with Eternity in mind. - Emmy Arnold
There is a hidden double standard. The past can be relativized simply by explaining the misconceptions of the ancient worldview. "The present, however, remains strangely immune from relativization...In other words, the New Testament writers are seen as afflicted with a false consciousness rooted in their time, but the contemporary analyst take the consciousness of his time as an unmixed intellectual blessing. The electricity- and radio-users are placed intellectually above the Apostle Paul.-- PETER BERGER
Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.-- Hector Berlioz
When asked what time it is: Do you mean now?..Lawrence Peter (Yogi) Berra (b. 1925)
We're lost, but we're making good time...Lawrence Peter (Yogi) Berra (b. 1925)
Year, n. A period of three hundred and sixty-five disappointments.- The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce
Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.- Ps. 90:12
Roman Church historian Dionysius Exiguus (ca.500_550), in calculating his history of the Christian Church, took 25 March as the supposed date of the Annunciation. March 25th afterward became the first day of the calendar year, until the Gregorian Calendar Reform of 1582 changed the day to January 1st.-- Bill Blake
Brand's Asymmetry
The past can only be known, not changed. The future can only
be changed, not known. -- Stewart Brand
Oh, how precious is time, and how it pains me to see it slide away, while I do so little to any good purpose. Oh, that God would make me more fruitful and spiritual.... David Brainerd (1718-1747)
Whether it's the best of times or the worst of times, it's the only time we've got. -- Art Buchwald
You will never find time for anything. If you want time you must make it. -- Charles Buxton
One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today. --Dale Carnegie (1888-1955)
If you don't think every day is a good day, just try missing one. --Cavett Robert
There's time enough, but none to spare.N: Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932) "The Marrow of Tradition," 1901.
Misers get up early in the morning; and burglars, I am informed, get up the night before.-- G.K. Chesterton Tremendous Trifles
Though we march to the music of our time, our mission is timeless.--William Jefferson Clinton, Inaugural Address (January 20, 1993)
Time goes, you say? Ah, no!
Alas, Time stays, *we* go.
Austin Dobson (1840-1921). "The Paradox of Time".
Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed.--- Peter F. Drucker
It is never too late to be what you might have been. --George Eliot [Marian Evans Cross] (1819-1880)
What would be the use of immortality to a person who cannot use well a half an hour.--Emerson
Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time; for
that's the stuff life is made of.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) Poor Richard's Almanac
[1746], June
We have passed a lot of water since then. -Sam Goldwyn
The past is a guidepost, not a hitching post. Thomas Holcroft
Think to yourself that every day is your last. --Horace [Quintus Horatius Flaccus] (65-8 BC) _Epistles_, Book I, Epistle iv, Line 13
Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, savor you, bless you, before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it will not always be so. One day I shall dig my fingers into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch my self taut, or raise my hands to the sky, and want all the more for your return.-Mary Jean Irion
Time is but the shadow of the world upon the background of Eternity.- Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927)
He that hopes to look back hereafter with satisfaction upon past years must learn to know the present value of single minutes, and endeavour to let no particle of time fall useless to the ground.- Samuel Johnson: Rambler #108
Life admits not of delays; when pleasure can be had, it is fit to catch it. Every hour takes away part of the things that please us, and perhaps part of our disposition to be pleased.... Samuel Johnson
Time's fun when you're having flies.-- Kermit the Frog
God is never too late, nor too early, but just on time.-- R T Kendall
The future is that time when you'll wish you had done what you aren't doing now. You can‚t have a better tomorrow if you are thinking about yesterday all the time. -- Charles F. Kettering
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Rudyard Kipling, "Recessional", 1897
It's only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth--and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up--that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it were the only one we had. -- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: "And this, too, shall pass away." How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction! ~ Abraham Lincoln
Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it, you can never get it back.... Harvey Mackay
That virgin, vital, beautiful day: today -- Stephane Mallarme 1842-1898, Plusieurs sonnets (1881)
All the gold in the world cannot buy a dying man one more breath - so what does that make today worth?" - Og Mandino
When people ask me to speak at some meeting or to lecture or deliver anaddress they sometimes say: 'Professor, how much time would you like?' To which I reply: 'Well - I do pretty good with a microcentury!' This sure gives them a quandry - a dilemma - a puzzle - which is, of course, just my intention. Cruel - wicked - calculating - all with the intent to make them THINK. So - quickly now - how long do _you_ think a microcentury is?- Professor Julius Sumner Miller, "Millergrams", Ure Smith, Sydney, 1966, Q64.
We inhabit ourselves without valuing ourselves, unable to see that here, now, this very moment is sacred; but once it's gone -- its value is incontestable.Joyce Carol Oates (1938-____) A: In "Words of Women Quotations for Success," by Power Dynamics Publishing, 1997.
Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. And today? Today is a gift. That's why we call it the present.-- Babatunde Olatunji
You are eternity's hostage. A captive of time.--Boris Pasternak (1890-1960)_Night_ [1957]
My pipe is out, my glass is dry;
My fire is almost ashes too;
But once again, before you go,
And I prepare to meet the New;
Old Year! a parting word that's true,
For we've been comrades, you and I--
I thank God for each day of you;
There! bless you now! Old Year, good-bye!
-Robert W. Service
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.-- Shakespeare, Richard II
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_
People who have time on their hands will inevitably waste the time of people who have work to do. -- Thomas Sowell
Right now counts forever. R. C. SPROUL
A man who does nothing never has time to do anything. - C H Spurgon
In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.
I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people's feet
Still going past me in the street.
And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?
R.L.Stevenson, "Bed in Summer"
How men hate waiting while their wives shop for clothes and trinkets; how women hate waiting, often for much of their lives, while their husbands shop for fame and glory. Thomas Szas
God hath given to man a short time here upon earth, and yet upon this short time eternity depends. -- Jeremy Taylor, _Holy Living_, 1650
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow;
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Alfred Tennyson_In Memoriam_ CVI (1850)
The past is an old armchair in the attic, the present an ominous ticking sound, and the future is anybody's guess.~James Thurber
We have uniformly rejected all letters and declined all discussion upon the question of when the present century ends, as it is one of the most absurd that can engage the public attention, and we are astonished to find it has been the subject of so much dispute, since it appears plain. The present century will not terminate till January 1, 1801, unless it can be made out that 99 are 100... It is a silly, childish discussion, and only exposes the want of brains of those who maintain a contrary opinion to that we have stated -- The Times, 26 December 1799
Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear,too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice,but for those who love, time is eternity. - Henry Van Dyke
Omnia fert aetas, animum quoque.(Time bears all away, even memory.) P. Vergilius Maro (Vergil), ECLOGA, IX, 51
There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want. --Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes
The present always needs to be deprived of its pretensions to being the most elevated moment in the story of the human spirit (or, as some charismatics would have it, the most dramatic), for this opens wide the door to pride and folly.-- David F. Wells No Place For Truth, p. 100
Empty heads are very fond of long titles.--German Proverb
It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.--Niccolo Machiavelli
I weigh the man, not his title: 'tis not the king's inscription can make the metal better or heavier.--William Wycherley
May you never lie, steal, cheat or drink. But if you must lie, lie in each other's arms. If you must steal, steal kisses. If you must cheat, cheat death. And if you must drink, drink with us, your friends.
Here's a health to all those that we love,
Here's a health to all those that love us,
Here's a health to all those that love them -
that love those - that love them -t
hat love those - that love us.
Religious tolerance is an act of terrorism on the truth.
The way to disarm any idea is to tolerate it.
Tolerance to all faiths is obedience to none.
There is a rule in sailing that the more maneuverable ship should give way to the less maneuverable. I think this is sometimes a good rule to follow in human relations as well. -- Joyce Brothers
There are those who believe something, and therefore will tolerate nothing; and on the other hand, those who tolerate everything, because they believe nothing. -R. Browning
There are those who hate Christianity and call their hatred an all-embracing love for all religions.-G.K. Chesterton
These are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own. G.K. Chesterton
Creeds must disagree: it is the whole fun of the thing. If I think the universe is triangular, and you think it is square, there cannot be room for two universes. We may argue politely, we may argue humanely, we may argue with great mutual benefit; but, obviously, we must argue. Modern toleration is really a tyranny. It is a tyranny because it is a silence. To say that I must not deny my opponent's faith is to say I must not discuss it . . . It is absurd to have a discussion on Comparative Religions if you don't compare them. -- G K Chesterton
Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions. -- G. K. Chesterton(1874-1936)
In the clash of civilizations, the West seems bent on unilateral disarmament -- that is, unless people are willing to risk being ostracized by their neighbors who have a badly misshapen notion of tolerance. But thatís exactly what Christians are called to do -- speak the truth in love. - Chuck Colson, BreakPoint, 16 May 2002
Tolerance used to mean an open market for the free discussion of everyone's truth claims&emdash;not anymore. Over the past few decades, it has been redefined to be the notion that not only should I have the right to do what I want to do, but you have to approve of it, as well.- "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" 2 May 2003
Tolerance does not...do anything, embrace anyone, champion any issue. It wipes the notes off the score of life and replaces them with one long bar of rest. It does not attack error, it does not champion truth, it does not hate evil, it does not love good.--Walter Farrell, _The Looking Glass_, 1951
Toleration is a good thing in its place; but you cannot tolerate what will not tolerate you, and is trying to cut your throat. J. A. Froude
I respect those who resist me; but I cannot tolerate them.- Charles De Gaulle (1890-1970) In "The Ultimate Success Quotations Library," by http://www.cyber-nation.com, 1997.
One hears endless calls for 'tolerance' and 'civility'. But those calls invariable ask Christians to be 'tolerant' and 'civil' about being gagged in public life. No one seems to ask, in the name of pluralism, that the atheist 'tolerate' the creche. No, the civility is all on one side and the toleration is a sham--in which Christians are complicit so long as they play by the current misconceived rules. So, yes, Virginia (and Rhode Island and Jersey City and Pittsburgh and Scranton)...'tis the season to fight injunctions. Christmas (or Hanukkah or Ramadan) is only truly worth celebrating when Christians (or Jews or Muslims) can proclaim--even on the public square--their unadulterated message. That is what American religious freedom is about, not about holiday scenes that hid Jesus in his manger behind the jolly snowman Frosty and the red-nosed reindeer Rudolph. -- John Grondelski, Seton Hall professor of Christian ethics, quoted _First Things, Dec. 2000
Now there sits a man with an open mind. You can feel the draft from here.-- Groucho Marx, on Chico Marx
Tolerance is only another name for indifference. -- W. Somerset Maugham A Writer's Notebook
One of the paradoxes of liberal societies arises from the commitment to tolerance. A society committed to respecting the viewpoints and customs of diverse people within a pluralistic society inevitably encounters this challenge: will you tolerate those who themselves do not agree to respect the viewpoints or customs of others? Paradoxically, the liberal commitment to tolerance requires, at some point, intolerance for those who would reject that very commitment. - Minow, M. (1990). Putting up and putting down: Tolerance reconsidered. Osgoode Hall Law Journal, 28, 409-448.
Toleration is not the *opposite* of intoleration, but is
the counterfeit of it. Both are despotisms. The one assumes
to itself the right of withholding liberty of conscience,
and the other of granting it. The one is the pope, armed
with fire and faggot, and the other is the pope selling or
granting indulgences.
Thomas Paine, _Rights of Man_
I hate people who are intolerant.~ Laurence J. Peter.
It is easy to be tolerant when you do not care. Clement F. Rogers
No totalitarian authority nor authoritarian state can tolerate those who have an absolute by which to judge that state and its actions. -- Francis Schaeffer
Historically, then, tolerance was the liberal, secular answer to the inability of conservative religionists to compromise with those who differed from them. Tolerance, in this sense, is relatively new, not something even thought desirable through most of human history. After all, why tolerate error? This is precisely what tolerance requires of us. Genuine tolerance, as opposed to its pale counterfeits, requires us to allow those who espouse or live out ideas we think wrong, perhaps even harmful, not only to do so but also to try to persuade others to do the same. - Daniel Taylor, Deconstructing the gospel of tolerance., Christianity Today. January 11, 1999 Vol. 43, No. 1, Page 42. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/9t1/9t1042.html
... one is not tolerant of something unless one objects
to it. I do not tolerate something I either accept or am
indifferent to, because it requires nothing of me. Most
social liberals, for instance, cannot rightfully be said to
be tolerant regarding homosexual behavior since they have no
objection to it. You do not have to tolerate that which you
accept or affirm. If you want to know whether a liberal is
tolerant, ask what he or she thinks of Jesse Helms or Pat
Robertson or Kenneth Starr.
If tolerance requires an initial objection, then
conservatives, ironically, may be much more tolerant than
liberals, because there are so many more things to which
they object. The least tolerant person is the person who
accepts everything, because such a person is not required to
overcome any internal objections. To paraphrase G. K.
Chesterton, turnips are singularly tolerant. - Daniel
Taylor, Deconstructing the gospel of tolerance.,
Christianity Today. January 11, 1999 Vol. 43, No. 1, Page
42.
Too much of what passes as tolerance in America is not the result of principled judgment but is simple moral indifference. Daniel Taylor, Deconstructing the gospel of tolerance., Christianity Today. January 11, 1999 Vol. 43, No. 1, Page 42.
If I would stop something if I could, but am powerless to do so, I am not tolerant, merely impotent. True tolerance means I voluntarily withhold what power I have to coerce someone else's behavior. Daniel Taylor, Deconstructing the gospel of tolerance., Christianity Today. January 11, 1999 Vol. 43, No. 1, Page 42.
The intolerant person is the one thing that cannot be tolerated, the one person who must be shamed or silenced. A guest commentator on National Public Radio shocked even his progressive hosts, but spoke for many, when he objected to the Southern Baptist belief that a lot of people are going to hell: "The evaporation of 4 million [people] who believe in this crap would leave the world a better place." (It's comforting to see that the dreaded Religious Right is not the only source of intolerance in our society.) Daniel Taylor, Deconstructing the gospel of tolerance., Christianity Today. January 11, 1999 Vol. 43, No. 1, Page 42.
Nevertheless‚ - and here's the rub‚ - it is widely acknowledged that no moral person tolerates everything. For some, the intolerable grows largely from issues of justice and fairness‚ - racism, sexism, homophobia, economic inequity. Such people are divided on an issue like pornography, where values that they hold with equal passion‚ - freedom of expression versus ending the exploitation of women‚ - collide. Given that everyone agrees that some things should not be tolerated, the real issue should not be whether one is tolerant or intolerant, but what's included on one's list. Daniel Taylor, Deconstructing the gospel of tolerance., Christianity Today. January 11, 1999 Vol. 43, No. 1, Page 42.
No man has a right in America to treat any other man "tolerantly" for tolerance is the assumption of superiority. Our liberties are equal rights of every citizen. Wendell L. Willkie
I consider looseness with words no less of a defect than looseness of the bowels.-- John Calvin
Discretion of speech is more than eloquence; and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words or in good order. Francis Bacon. 1561-1626. Of Discourse.
God has given us two ears, but one tongue, to show that we should be swift to hear, but slow to speak. God has set a double fence before the tongue, the teeth and the lips, to teach us to be wary that we offend not with our tongue.- Thomas Watson
If you think that there is good in everybody, you haven't met everybody.
I do not know what the heart of a bad man is like, but I do know what the heart of a good man is like... and it is terrible.
Every new generation is a fresh invasion of savages. --Hervey Allen, "Anthony Adverse"
You cannot teach a crab to walk straight.-- Aristophanes
The bad man is continually at war with, and in opposition to, himself. -- Aristotle
The doctrine of Total Inability, which declares that men are dead in sin, does not mean that all men are equally bad, nor that any man is as bad as he could be, nor that any one is entirely destitute of virtue, nor that human nature is evil in itself, nor that man's spirit is inactive, and much less does it mean that the body is dead. What it does mean is that since the fall man rests under the curse of sin, that he is actuated by wrong principles, and that he is wholly unable to love God or to do anything meriting salvation. His corruption is extensive but not necessarily intensive. -- Boettner
There is no safety for honest men but by believing all possible evil of evil men.--Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, p. 249.
At this day... the earth sustains on her bosom many monster minds, minds which are not afraid to employ the seed of Deity deposited in human nature as a means of suppressing the name of God. Can anything be more detestable than this madness in man, who, finding God a hundred times both in his body and his soul, makes his excellence in this respect a pretext for denying that there is a God? He will not say that chance has made him different from the brutes; ... but, substituting Nature as the architect of the universe, he suppresses the name of God. -- John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion
Man with all his shrewdness is as stupid about
understanding by himself the mysteries of God, as an ass is
incapable of understanding musical harmony.
Calvin on 1Cor 1:20.
We are all worms, but I do believe that I am a glow-worm.-- Winston Churchill
If man is not rising upwards to be an angel, depend on it, he is sinking downwards to be a devil. He cannot stop at the beast.--Samuel Taylor Coleridge, _Table Talk_, August 30, 1833
Denying the Enlightenment doctrine of a person‚s innate goodness, evangelicals believe in the total depravity of humanity. All the goodness that exists in human nature is tainted by sin, and no dimension of life is free from its effects. Humanity was originally created perfect; but through the fall sin entered the race, making people corrupt at the very core of their being, and this spiritual infection has been passed on from generation to generation. Sin is not an inherent weakness or ignorance but positive rebellion against God‚s law. It is moral and spiritual blindness and bondage to powers beyond one‚s control. The root of sin is unbelief, and its manifestations are pride, lust for power, sensuousness, selfishness, fear, and disdain for spiritual things. The propensity to sin is within a person from birth, its power cannot be broken by human effort, and the ultimate result is complete and permanent separation from the presence of God. - Pierard, R.V. and Elwell, W.A. (1984 & 2001). "Evangelicalism." In W. Elwell (Ed.), *Evangelical Dictionary of Theology* (pp. 405-410). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.
Most people are just selfish and egocentric, wanting what they want, when they want it, without regard to the rest of society. The vast majority of people are cave-men in designer clothes, without morals or ethics. -- Frederick A. Farris, Las_Vegas_Sun (Thu 25 Apr 2002)
I never expect to see a perfect work from imperfect men. - Alexander Hamilton
Look into any man's heart you please, and you will always
find, in every one, at least one black spot which he has to
keep concealed.
Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906), _Pillars of Society_
He who undertakes to guide men must never lose sight of
the fact that they are malicious monkeys.... The folly of
the revolution was in aiming to establish virtue on the
earth. When you want to make men good and wise, free,
moderate, generous, you are led inevitably to the desire of
killing them all.
Anatole France(1844-1924)
Alongside getting faith out of a heart that is utterly hostile and unbelieving, making a silk purse out of a sow's ear or getting blood from a turnip is child's play. JOHN GERTSNER
Seward: "One should think that sickness, and the view of
death, would make more men religious."
Johnson: "Sir, they do not know how to go about it: they
have not the first notion. A man who has never had religion
before, no more grows religious when he is sick, than a man
who has never learnt figures can count when he has need of
calculation." - James Boswell: Life of Johnson
I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.-- Samuel Johnson
Man must be disciplined, for he is by nature raw and wild. --Kant, Immanuel (1724-1804)
In youth, in middle age, and now after many battles, I find nothing in me but corruption. --John Knox (1505-1572) [Scottish Protestant reformer]
We are all fallen creatures and all very hard to live with. --CS Lewis
Man's problem has never been not knowing what he should do. His problem, rather, has been that he lacks power to do what he knows he should. Paul E.Little
It is common to assume that human progress affects
everyone˜that even the dullest man, in these bright
days, knows more than any man of, say, the Eighteenth
Century, and is far more civilized. This assumption is quite
erroneous. The men of the educated minority, no doubt, know
more than their predecessors, and of some of them, perhaps,
it may be said that they are more civilized˜though I
should not like to be put to giving names˜but the
greatmasses of men, even in this inspired republic, are
precisely where the mob was at the dawn of history. They are
ignorant, they are dishonest, they are cowardly, they are
ignoble. They know little if anything that is worth knowing,
and there is not the slightest sign of a natural desire
among them to increase their knowledge.
H. L. Mencken, "Homo neanderthalis", The Baltimore Evening
Sun, June 29, 1925
It's silly to go on pretending that under the skin we are all brothers. The truth is more likely that under the skin we are all cannibals, assassins, traitors, liars, hypocrites, poltroons. -- Henry Miller
Worm theology is too high for me. -- Jack Miller
"You do not think highly of men, Mr Eliot." "I am one," I said. --C. P. Snow, _The Light & the Dark_
The Human Race has improved everything except the Human Race.-- Adlai Stevenson
Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.-- Mark Twain Following the Equator, Chapt. XXX, Vol I
I do not wish to divulge or publish this because of the evil nature of men. ~ Leonardo da Vinci 1452-1519, quoted in Serge Bramly , Leonardo (1988) - writing in his Notebook on his invention of a method of remaining underwater to sink ships.
The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,....neither can he know them' (1 Cor. 2:14). He may have more insight into the things of the world than a believer, but he does not see the deep things of God. A swine may see an acorn under a tree, but he cannot see a star. - THOMAS WATSON
Man, by his Fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost
all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying
salvation; so as a natural man, being altogether averse from
that good, and dead in sin, is not able, by his own
strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself
thereunto.
Westminster Confession.. Of Free Will
Some natural skepticism as to the purity of all human motives came and sat upon my chest.--ZELAZNY, ROGER (1937-1995){Nine Princes in Amber, 1970}
From the descriptive point of view, the difference between the physician and the veterinarian is that the former treats human diseases or sick people, whereas the latter treats animal diseases or sick animals. From the moral and political point of view, the difference between them is that the physician is expected to be the agent of the persons who are his patients, whereas the veterinarian is expected to be the agent of persons who own sick animals. In proportion, then, as the physician becomes the agent of the State and in proportion as the State is totalitarian, the physician becomes, from a moral and political point of view, a veterinarian- that is, the agent of a State that owns its citizens, just as the farmer owns his animals. This is why killing animals is part of the normal function of the veterinarian and why incarcerating people is, and killing them may yet become, a part of the normal function of the physician employed by the Therapeutic State.--Thomas Szasz
Why is it called tourist season if we can't shoot at them? -George Carlin
Like tourists huffing and puffing to reach the peak we forget the view on the way up-- Nietzsche
We Baptists don't believe in tradition; it's contrary to our historic position
A well-beaten path does not always make the right road.
Tradition does not mean that the living are dead but that the dead are alive. Gilbert Keith Chesterton
Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death . . . I at any rate, cannot separate the two ideas of democracy and tradition; it seems evident to me that they are the same idea. G K Chesterton {Orthodoxy, Garden City, NY: Doubleday Image, 1908, p. 48}
There is nothing more innately human than the tendency to transmute what has become customary into what has been divinely ordained. Suzanne LaFollette
The Christian cannot be satisfied so long as any human activity is either opposed to Christianity or out of connection with Christianity. Christianity must pervade not merely all nations but also all of human thought. J. Gresham Machen
Tradition is an explanation for acting without thinking. Grace McGarvie
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
Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. -- Washington
Eclipse of the light of heaven, eclipse of God - such indeed is the character of the historic hour through which the world is now passing.- Martin Buber, quoted in The Eclipse of Heaven, A J Conyers, Inter Varsity Press, 1992.
What would become of us if we did not take our stand on hope,and if our heart did not hasten beyond this world through the midst of the darkness upon the path illumined by the word and Spirit of God? - John Calvin on Hebrews 11:1.
If within us we find nothing over us we succumb to what is around us.- P T Forsyth, Positive Preaching and the Modern Mind, 1907
The new age cannot live on naturalism or on secularism. Life becomes sterile and futile without the depth and power which come from participation in eternal realities. But this new age cannot any more successfully live on religious faiths that are out of harmony with known truth, or that hang loose in the air, cut apart from the fundamental intellectual culture of the age. The hour has struck for the serious business of rediscovering the foundations, and of interpenetrating all life and thought with the truths and realities of a victorious religious faith. ... Rufus Jones (1863-1948), Christian Faith in a New Age
The journey of a hundred miles begins with a broken fan belt and a flat tyre.
Two shorten the road. Irish Proverb
Who travels for love finds a thousand miles not longer than one.-Japanese Proverb
Little by little one walks far. Peruvian Proverb
The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only a page. - Augustine of Hippo
Why buy good luggage? You only use it when you travel. .Lawrence Peter (Yogi) Berra (b. 1925)
What singular emotions fill Their bosoms who have been induced to roam! ~Lord Byron, Don Juan, c.3.21
We are all pilgrims on the same journey--but some pilgrims have better road maps.--Nelson DeMille_The Talbot Odyssey_
All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own, and if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it. -- Samuel Johnson: Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland
Sometimes the journey *is* its own reward--but not when you're trying to get to the bathroom in time. -John Kensmark
Whenever I travel I like to keep the seat next to me empty. I found a great way to do it. When someone walks down the aisle and says to you, "Is someone sitting there?" just say, "No one-except the Lord." Carol Leifer
A merry companion; is as good as a wagon. John Lyly
A traveler has a right to relate and embellish his adventures as hepleases, and it is very impolite to refuse that deference and applause they deserve.--Rudolf Erich Raspe (1737-1794), _Travels of Baron Munchausen_ [1785],Chapter 21
It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out - it's the grain of sand in your shoe.--Robert W. Service
The fact that few people go there is one of the most persuasive reasons for traveling to a place.-- Paul Theroux ,The happy isles of Oceania. Paddling the Pacific
We leave traces of ourselves wherever we go, on whatever we touch.-Lewis Thomas
Suffering makes you deep. Travel makes you broad. In case I get my pick, I'd rather travel.~Judith Viorst, Love and Guilt and the Meaning Of Life, Etc (1979)
We're all going on a summer holiday,
No more worries for a week of two.
Bruce Welch and Brian Bennett, lyric, 'Summer Holiday'
(1963)
I just got back from a pleasure trip... Took my mother-in-law to the airport. -- Henny Youngman
What doth it profit thee to enter into deep discussions concerning the Holy Trinity, if thou lack humility, and be thus displeasing to the Trinity? For verily it is not deep words that make a man holy and upright; it is a good life which maketh a man dear to God. I had rather feel contrition than be skillful in the definition thereof. If thou knewest the whole Bible, and the sayings of all the philosophers, what should this profit thee without the love and grace of God? ... Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ
The doctrine of the blessed Trinity is a reminder of the supernaturalness of biblical Christianity. The doctrine defies rationalization, yet it provides for the believer the answer to the unity and diversity of the world.... Robert P. Lightner (1931- )
Every once in a while in my discussions someone asks how
I can believe in the Trinity. My answer is always the same.
I would still be an agnostic if there was no Trinity,
because there would be no answers. Without the high order of
personal unity and diversity as given in the Trinity, THERE
ARE NO ANSWERS.
F A Schaeffer He Is There And He Is Not Silent
We must appreciate that our Christian forefathers
understood this very well in A.D. 325, when they stressed
the three Persons in the Trinity, as the Bible had clearly
set this forth. Let us notice that it is not that they
invented the Trinity in order to give an answer to the
philosophical questions which the Greeks of that time
understood. It is quite the contrary. The unity and
diversity problem was there, and the Christians realised
that in the Trinity, as it had been taught in the Bible,
they had an answer that no one else had. They did not invent
the Trinity to meet the need; the Trinity was already there
and it MET the need. They realised that in the Trinity we
have what all these people are arguing about and defining
but for which they have no answer.
Let us notice again that this is not the BEST answer; it is
the ONLY answer. Nobody else, no philosophy, has ever given
us an answer for unity and diversity. So when people ask
whether we are embarrassed intellectually by the Trinity, I
always switch it over into their own terminology -- unity
and diversity. Every philosophy has this problem, and no
philosophy has an answer. Christianity does have an answer
in the existence of the Trinity. The only answer to what
exists is that He, the triune God, is there. F A Schaeffer
He Is There And He Is Not Silent
We need the full biblical content concerning God: that He
is the infinite-personal God, and the triune God. Now let me
express this in a couple of other ways. One way to say it is
that without the infinite-personal God, the God of personal
unity and diversity, there is no answer to the existence of
what exists. We can say it in another way, however, and that
is that the infinite-personal God, the God who is Trinity,
has spoken. He is there, and He is not silent. There is no
use having a silent God. We would not know anything about
Him. He has spoken and told us what He is and that He
existed before all else, and so we have the answer to the
existence of what is.
He is not silent. The reason we have the answer is because
the infinite-personal God, the full Trinitarian God, has not
been silent. He has told us who He is. Couch your concept of
inspiration and revelation in these terms, and you will see
how it cuts down into the warp and woof of modern thinking.
HE IS NOT SILENT. That is the reason we know. It is because
He has spoken. What has He told us? Has He told us only
about other things? No, He has told us truth about Himself
-- and because He has told us truth about Himself -- that He
is the infinite-personal, triune God -- we have the answer
to existence. Or we may put it this way: at the point of
metaphysics -- of Being, of existence -- general and special
revelation speak with one voice. All these ways of saying it
are really expressing the same thing from slightly different
viewpoints.
In conclusion, man, beginning with himself, can define the
philosophical problem of existence, but he cannot generate
from himself the answer to the problem. The answer to the
problem of existence is that the infinite-personal, triune
God is there, and that the infinite-personal, triune God is
not silent.
F A Schaeffer He Is There And He Is Not Silent
[He was] a solemn, unsmiling, sanctimonious old iceberg who looked like he was waiting for a vacancy in the Trinity. -- Mark Twain
Tell me how it is that in this room there are three candles and but one light; and I will explain to you the mode of the divine existence. John Wesley
Q. 9. How many persons are there in the Godhead?
A. There be three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one true,
eternal God, the same in substance, equal in power and
glory; although distinguished by their personal properties.
WESTMINSTER LARGER CATECHISM #9
I post thought-provoking discussion starters, you are contentious, he trolls. Graham Nye
Trust in Allah, but tie your camel. --Arabian proverb.
Tust in God but lock your doors -- russian proverb
Pray to God, but keep rowing to shore. -- Russian Proverb
Trust everybody, but cut the cards -- finley peter dunne
We have to distrust each other. It is our only defense against betrayal. --Tennessee Williams (1911-1983)
It's only arrogance if you're wrong
Fight truth decay. . study the Bible daily.
Do you believe in truth?
If so, why?
What is truth?
Is truth real?
Can you prove truth?
How? Who says?
Is my truth different to your truth? If so, who is right? I
think we must conclude wisely that as truth is
incomprehensible we are not bound to regard it.
Do you believe in love?
If so, why?
What is love?
Is love real?
Can you prove love?
How? Who says?
Is my love different to your love? If so, who is right? I
think we must conclude wisely that as love is
incomprehensible we are not bound to regard it
When you shoot an arrow of truth, dip its point in honey.--Arab proverb
Fear not the path of truth for the lack of people walking on it. -Arab proverb
Tell the truth and run. -- Yugoslav proverb
Sentences which simply express moral judgements do not say anything. They are pure expressions of feeling and as such do not come under the category of truth and falsehood. -- A J Ayer. Language, Truth and Logic, ch6, 1936
No pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage-ground of truth.-- Francis Bacon. 1561-1626. Of Truth.
The antiquity and general acceptance of an opinion is not assurance of its truth. Pierre Bayle
It is pure illusion to think that an opinion that passes down from century to century, from generation to generation, may not be entirely false. Pierre Bayle
As scarce as the truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand.-- Josh Billings
Solomon bids us (Prov 23:23) to buy the truth, but doth not tell us what it must cost, because we must get it though it be never so dear. We must love it both shining and scorching. Every parcel of truth is precious as the filings of gold; we must either live with it, or die for it. THOMAS BROOKS
Christians are not to receive anything lightly that concerns faith and salvation. They need to try and examine it over and over. We are not to reject an error ignorantly, but rationally; nor are we to embrace a truth till we have debated and examined whether it is a truth or not. --Thomas Brooks
It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people. -- Giordano Bruno
Truth may be stretched, but it cannot be broken, and always gets above falsehood, as oil does above water. ~Miguel de Cervantes
Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions. -G.K. Chesterton ILN, 4/19/30
Truth must necessarily be stranger than fiction, for fiction is the creation of the human mind and therefore congenial to it. G. K. Chesterton
Doctrinal rightness and rightness of ecclesiastical position are important, but only as a starting point to go on into a living relationship -- and not as ends in themselves. --Francis Schaeffer, letter: 1954
You can only find truth with logic if you have already found truth without it. --Chesterton, _The Man Who Was Orthodox_, 1963
The road to tyranny, we must never forget, begins with the destruction of the truth. --William J. Clinton. 10/15/95 speech at Univ. of C T
Pure truth, like pure gold, has been found unfit for circulation, because men have discovered that it is far more convenient to adulterate the truth than to refine themselves. --Charles Caleb Colton (1780-1832) _Lacon_ [1825], Vol 2, No. 108
Falsehood is never so successful as when she baits her hook with truth, and no opinions so fatally mislead us, as those that are not wholly wrong; as no watches so effectually deceive the wearer as those that are sometimes right. --C. C. Colton
The truth will make you free, but first it will make you miserable.-- Tom DeMarco
It is the pursuit of truth itself that the modern critics spurn. By reducing all truth to the level of opinion, they deny the legitimacy of distinctives between truth and error. Yet what is the goal of liberal education if not the ongoing search for truth? If education cannot help to separate truth from falsehood, beauty from vulgarity, right from wrong, then what can it teach us? DINESH D'SOUZA
Taxi drivers are always asking me, "Federico, why don't you make pictures we can understand?" I answer them that it is because I tell the truth, and the truth is never clear, while lies are quickly understood by everyone. An honest man is contradictory, and contradictions are more difficult to understand.I Fellini, by Charlotte Chandler,, p.97
The truth doesn't hurt unless it ought to.-- B. C. Forbes (1880-1954) In "The Speaker's Electronic Reference Collection," AApex Software, 1994.
Whenever you have truth it must be given with love, or the message and the messenger will be rejected. ~Mohandas Gandhi
When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it: always. - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, 1869 - 1948
It is easier to perceive error than to find truth, for the former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while the latter lies in the depth, where few are willing to search for it. --Goethe
Americans understand that truth telling matters, I think. I hope. And I thought the press understood this, but I'm changing my mind. Look at all of the time and energy the media has spent policing George Bush's verbal gaffes while ignoring Gore's lying. While annoying and sometimes embarrassing, a speech problem is almost entirely meaningless. Moses stuttered, for heaven's sake. But lying goes to the heart of politics and turns it black. It is always relevant. And after eight years of Bill Clinton it is supremely relevant. -- Jonah Goldberg, Oct. 2000
Everyone may be entitled to his own opinion but everyone is not entitled to his own truth. Truth is but one.-- DOUG GROOTHIUS
Truth is not determined by majority vote.-- Doug Gwyn
The greatest jihad is to say the truth in front of the king. --Hadith
The only reason reason any one should believe Christianity is that it is true. Its truth rests on historical facts which do not change, truths which are open to tests normally applied to other events or claims. It is not a matter of whether it sells or whether it works or whether it feels good or provides meaningful experiences. What Christianity teaches is the correct explanation of reality. DICK HALVERSON
Truth is not only stranger than fiction, it is more interesting. - William Randolph Hearst (863 &endash; 1951)
It is a matter of perfect indifference where a thing originated ; the only question is; "Is it true in and for itself?" ~Georg Hegel (1770-1831), The Philosophy of History, ch.2 (1837)
No one truth is rightly held till it is clearly conceived and stated, and no single truth is adequately comprehended till it is viewed in harmonious relations to all the other truths of the system of which Christ is the centre.- A. A. Hodge
To most of us nothing is so invisible as an unpleasant truth. Though it is held before our eyes, pushed under our noses, rammed down our throats- we know it not. --Eric Hoffer
Live truth instead of professing it. - Elbert Hubbard
Veracity is the heart of morality. -- Thomas Henry Huxley
Truth is great and will prevail if left to herself. She is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict unless disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate. Thomas Jefferson
There is no truth existing which I fear, or would wish unknown to the whole world. -- Thomas Jefferson
......and finally, that truth is great and will prevail if left to herself; that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate; errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them. Jefferson, Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom. draft.Section I
Inconsistencies ... cannot both be right; but, imputed to
man, they may both be true.
Samuel Johnson: Rasselas [the character Imlac]
I deny the lawfulness of telling a lie to a sick man for fear of alarming him; you have no business with consequences you are to tell the truth. Johnson (1709-1784)
Truth is scarcely to be heard but by those from whom it can serve no interest to conceal it.- Samuel Johnson: Rambler #150
Have patience awhile; slanders are not long-lived. Truth is the child of time; ere long she shall appear to vindicate thee. - Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
Do not be influenced by the importance of the writer, and whether his learning be great or small, but let the love of pure truth draw you to read. Do not inquire, "Who said this?" but pay attention to what is said. --Thomas à Kempis'_The Imitation of Christ_ [c. 1420]: --Bk. 1, ch. 4: "On Prudence in Action"
Our society finds truth too strong a medicine to digest undiluted. In its purest form, truth is not a polite tap on the shoulder; it is a howling reproach. What Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai were not suggestions but ten commandments. -- TED KOPPEL, Duke commencement address
Satan knows that he can undermine the structure of the church by slyly removing just one fundamental doctrine at a time. He frequently loosens a large foundation gradually, chiseling it away bit by bit. That is why tolerance for the sake of peace may be dangerous. One step by giving in will lead to a next step, and will not God visit us with blindness if we deliberately darken the truth He has graciously entrusted to us. How shall we justify ourselves if we permit even a little of the truth to be laid aside? Is that ours to do? When peace is injurious to the truth, peace must give way. Peace with God is of greater value than peace with men.. -- Abraham Kuyper
Your Hindus certainly sound delightful. But what do they deny? That's always been my trouble with Indians--to find any proposition they would pronounce false. But truth must surely involve exclusions? --Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) _Letters of C.S. Lewis_ [1966], "8 February 1956" (In a letter to Dom Bede Griffiths, O.S.B. who was in India at the time.)
One of the great difficulties is to keep before the audience's mind the question of Truth. They always think you are recommending Christianity not because it is true but because it is good.... You have to keep forcing them back, and again back, to the real point. --God in the Dock , CS Lewis
Only today I have found a passage in a Christian writer
where he recommends his own version of Christianity on the
ground that 'only such a faith can outlast the death of old
cultures and the birth of new civilisations.' You see the
little rift? 'Believe this, not because it is true, but for
some other reason.' That's the game."
C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters end of chapter
XXIII
The truth of a proposition has nothing to do with its credibility. And vice versa. Lazarus Long (R. A. Heinlein)
New occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good
uncouth,
They must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of
truth.
James Russell Lowell
If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point. --Martin Luther (1483-1546)
Peace if possible, truth at all costs. Martin Luther
You need not tell all the truth, unless to those who have a right to know it all. But let all you tell be truth.-- Horace Mann
What must we contend for? For every truth of God, according to its moment and weight. The dust of gold is precious; and it is dangerous to be careless in the lesser truths: There is nothing superfluous in the cannon. - Thomas Manton
Man has always sacrificed truth to his vanity, comfort and advantage. He lives by make believe.-- W. Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up, 1938
Truth would quickly cease to become stranger than fiction, once we got as used to it.--Mencken,_Men versus the Man_ III:22
The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind.-- H. L. Mencken
There are many truths of which the full meaning cannot be realised until personal experience has brought it home." -- John Stuart Mill
It's silly to go on pretending that under the skin we are all brothers. The truth is more likely that under the skin we are all cannibals, assassins, traitors, liars, hypocrites, poltroons. Henry Miller
Servant of God, well done, well hast thou fought
The better fight, who single hast maintain'd
Against revolted multitudes the Cause
Of Truth, in word mightier than they in Arms;
And for the testimony of Truth hast borne
Universal reproach, far worse to bear
Than violence.
John Milton. 1608-1674. Paradise Lost. Book VI, 29 - 35
Beholding the bright countenance of truth in the quiet and still air of delightful studies.-- John Milton The Reason of Church Government. Introduction, Book ii.
I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.-- John Milton Areopagitica.
Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do ingloriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple: who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter? --John Milton Areopagitica.
We are born to inquire after truth; it belongs to a greater power to possess it. It is not, as Democritus said, hid in the bottom of the deeps, but rather elevated to an infinite height in the divine knowledge. --Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-1592) _Essays_, Book III, Chapter 8 [1595], "Of the Art of Conversation"
Let us begin by committing ourselves to the truth, to see it like it is and to tell it like it is, to find the truth, to speak the truth and live with the truth. That's what we'll do.-- Richard M Nixon , Nomination acceptance speech, Miami, 8 Aug 1968, 1968
I let down my friends, I let down my country. I let down
our system of government.
Richard M Nixon , The Observer, `Sayings of the Week', 8 May
1977, 1977
Truth never yet fell dead in the streets; it has such affinity with the soul of man, the seed however broadcast will catch somewhere and produce its hundredfold. Theodore Parker (1810-1860 _A Discourse of Matters Pertaining to Religion_ [1842]
We must always hold truth, as best we can determine it,
to be more important, more vital to our self-interest, than
our comfort.
Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled
The honest man must be a perpetual renegade, the life of an honest man a perpetual infidelity. For the man who wishes to remain faithful to truth must make himself perpetually unfaithful to all the continual, successive, indefatigable renascent errors -- Charles Peguy
Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders than from the arguments of its opposers."William Penn
Truth is the beginning of every good thing, both in heaven and on earth; and he who would be blessed and happy should be from the first a partaker of truth, for then he can be trusted. -- Plato, 'Laws'
After the truth what is there save error?-- Quran 10:32
It is not the number of books you read, nor the variety of sermons you hear, nor the amount of religious conversation in which you mix, but it is the frequency and earnestness with which you meditate on these things until the truth in them becomes your own and part of your being, that ensures your growth. --Frederick William Robertson (1816-1853)
The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed, in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a wide-spread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.-- Bertrand Russell, Marriage and Morals, 1929
Never assume the obvious is true.-- William Safire
She took to telling the truth; she said she was forty-two and five months. It may have been pleasing to the angels, but her elder sister was not gratified.--Saki [Hector Hugh Munro] (1870-1916) _Reginald_ [1904]
Truth demands confrontation; loving confrontation, but confrontation nevertheless. If our reflex action is always accommodation, regardless of the centrality of the truth involved, there is something wrong. Just as what we may call holiness without love is not God's kind of holiness, so also what we may call love without holiness, is not God's kind of love... A false spirit of accommodation is sweeping the world as well as the Church, including those who claim the label of evangelical. Francis Schaeffer The Great Evangelical Disaster
"There are no truths," he (Nietzsche) wrote. "only interpetations." Now, either what Nietzsche said is true - in which case it is not true, since there are no truths - or it is false. - Roger Scruton, The West and the Rest, ISI Books, 2002, p 74
A writer who says there are no truths, or that all truth is merely relative,' is asking you not to believe him. So don't. --Roger Scruton, Modern Philosophy.
Truthfulness so often goes with ruthlessness. - Dodie Smith (1896-1990) "I Capture the Castle," 1948.
The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world.--Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Truth is always the strongest argument.-- Sophocles (B.C. 495-406s
There are only two ways of telling the complete truth: anonymously and posthumously. -- Thomas Sowell
Long ago I ceased to count heads. Truth is usually in the minority in this evil world. C. H. SPURGEON
The quickest way to slay error is to proclaim the truth. The surest mode of extinguishing falsehood is to boldly advocate Scripture principles. Scolding and protesting will not be so effectual in resisting the progress of error as the clear proclamation of the truth in Jesus. CHARLES SPURGEON
Henry the Eighth would listen to Hugh Latimer though he denounced him to his face and even sent him on his birthday a handkerchief, on which was marked the text, "Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." (Hebrews 13:4) Henry cried, "Let us hear honest Hugh Latimer." Even bad men admire those who tell them the truth. --Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) _Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit_ Volume 24 [1880]
Nagging is the repetition of unpalatable truths. -- Baroness Edith Summerskill
Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.--Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)_Walden_ [1854], "Conclusion"
Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold. -- Leo Tolstoy
Truth is a glorious but hard mistress. She never consults, bargains or compromises.--A. W. Tozer
I would rather know the truth than be happy in ignorance. If I cannot have both truth and happiness, give me truth. We'll have a long time to be happy in heaven. --A. W. Tozer
"Let God be true but every man a liar" is the language of true faith. --A. W. Tozer
I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell. -- Harry S Truman
Truth is more of a stranger than fiction. --Mark Twain
If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything. Mark Twain
Truth can understand error, but error cannot understand truth. - quoted by Maisie Ward, in Gilbert Keith Chesterton, p. 156, with no citation.
Falsehoods not only disagree with truths, but usually quarrel among themselves. --Daniel Webster
The present always needs to be deprived of its pretensions to being the most elevated moment in the story of the human spirit (or, as some charismatics would have it, the most dramatic), for this opens wide the door to pride and folly.-- David F. Wells No Place For Truth, p. 100
The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.-- Oscar Wilde
I believe that in the end truth will conquer.--John Wycliffe (?1330-1384) in The Lion Christian Quotation Collection, 1997
But it is good to repeat fundamental truths and, if possible, bring them into new and fresh focus. A great truth is like a mountain that one walks around, and the changes of its contour, as one moves his position, only emphasize and revivify its majesty. - N C Wyeth
To deem all beliefs equally true is sheer nonsense for the simple reason that to deny that statement would also, then, be true. But if denial of the statement is also true, then all religions are not true. -- Ravi Zacharias "Jesus Among Other Gods"
I wish there was a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence. There's a knob called `brightness', but it doesn't work
All television is children‚s television.-- Richard P. Adler
In California, they don't throw their garbage away - they make it into TV shows.~Woody Allen
Television is the first truly democratic culture - the first culture available to everybody and entirely governed by what the people want. The most terrifying thing is what the people do want.~Clive Barnes
Whoever controls the media -- the images -- controls the culture. - Allen Ginsberg
Television-a medium. So called because it is neither rare nor well done.~Ernie Kovacs
Television is a golden goose that lays scrambled eggs; and it is futile and probably fatal to beat it for not laying caviar. Anyway more people like scrambled eggs than caviar. Lee Loevinger
I find television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a good book. (Julius Henry) Groucho Marx (1890-1977)
Television brought the brutality of war into the comfort of the living room. Vietnam was lost in the living rooms of America - not on the battlefields of Vietnam. Herbert Marshall McLuhan
There is a gulf between reality, which for Christians is Christ, and he world of fantasy that the media project, and . . . Western people are being enormously misled by being induced to regard things on the screen as real, when actually they are fantasy. But, of course, God can use all things - even television, even you and me.-- Malcom Muggeridge, Christ and the Media, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1977, p. 90
I have never seen a bad television program, because I
refuse to. God gave me a mind, and a wrist that turns things
off.
Jack Paar (1918-____) In "TV Guide."
Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.- Shimon Peres (1923-____) : A Bend in the River, by V.S. Naipaul, 1979
It's just hard not to listen to TV: it's spent so much more time raising us than you have. ---Bart Simpson
There is a lot of hype going on about high-definition television. But is it really worth it to pay more money to see the same junk in sharper detail? Thomas Sowell
Oh, great altar of passive entertainment, bestow upon me thy discordant images at such speed as to render linear thought impossible! - Bill Watterson
I just read this great science fiction story. It's about how machines take control of humans and turn them into zombie slaves! ...HEY! What time is it?? My TV show is on! Bill Watterson
TV is chewing gum for the eyes. --Frank Lloyd Wright
The typewriter, *ike all macæines, has amind of it sown ~Sir Alan Patrick Herbert, 1890-1971
My fingers are not as fast as my brain - which isn't that much to type home about anyway. Frank Lane
tyranny
He who fights against tyrants is holy, and he who tames the arrogant serves the Lord.-- Ernst Moritz Arndt
The tyranny of the multitude is a multiplied tyranny. -- Edmund Burke
Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.-- Frederick Douglass