As school begins today, I think of how so many of my students do not have a guiding philosophy for their life. Even many, if not most, of this age’s adults lack ideals that give them focus and sharpen virtue. I collect quotations. (Please send me your favorite ones). Though I’ll probably add to this list, here are some proverbs and quotations that have always been important to me, and ones I try to live by:
“A friend is someone who knows all about you and still likes you.”–Source unknown.
“Experience is not the best teacher, just the hardest teacher.”–Source unknown
“The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for and I hate very much to leave it.”–Ernest Hemingway
“We should not maliciously use truth to inflict injury upon others.”–(James Lee Burke says this is from St. Augustine.)
“Money answers all things.”–Ecclesiastes 10:19
“Do the hardest tasks first.”–Unknown
Here are some of my favorites:
Dreams are only thoughts you didn’t have time to think about during the day. — Anonymous
If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded. — Maya Angelou
If you smile when no one else is around, you really mean it. — Andy Rooney
Every day may not be good, but there’s something good in every day. — Anonymous
To love abundantly is to live abundantly, and to love forever is to live forever. — Henry Drummond
What do we live for; if it is not to make life less difficult for each other? —George Eliot
I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity.
Gilda Radner, 1946-1989
The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.
Eden Ahbez
Where there is love, distance doesn’t matter.
Mata Amritanandamayi
Successful love is rational..
Warthy Aniket
Here are a few favorites of late from one of my favorite authors:
“To answer a question for which an answer is not truly sought is only to prolong the charade.”
-Ravi Zacharius
“Postmodernism tells us there’s no such thing as truth; no such thing as meaning; no such thing as certainty. I remember lecturing at Ohio State University, one of the largest universities in this country. I was minutes away from beginning my lecture, and my host was driving me past a new building called the Wexner Center for the Performing Arts. He said, “This is America’s first postmodern building.” I was startled for a moment and I said, “What is a postmodern building?” He said, “Well, the architect said that he designed this building with no design in mind. When the architect was asked, ‘Why?’ he said, ‘If life itself is capricious, why should our buildings have any design and any meaning?’ So he has pillars that have no purpose. He has stairways that go nowhere. He has a senseless building built and somebody has paid for it.” I said, “So his argument was that if life has no purpose and design, why should the building have any design?” He said, “That is correct.” I said, “Did he do the same with the foundation?” All of a sudden there was silence. You see, you and I can fool with the infrastructure as much as we would like, but we dare not fool with the foundation because it will call our bluff in a hurry.”
-Ravi Zacharias
“…meaninglessness does not come from being weary of pain; meaninglessness comes from being weary of pleasure. And that is why we find ourselves emptied of meaning with our pantries still full.”
-Ravi Zacharias