Notable Quotables
“After a while you learn the
subtle difference between holding a hand and chaining a soul.
And you learn that love doesn’t mean leaning. And company
doesn’t always mean security. And you begin to learn that kisses
aren’t contracts. And presents aren’t promises. And you begin to
accept your defeats with your head up And your eyes ahead. With
the grace of a woman, not the grief of a child. And you learn to
build all your roads on today. Because tomorrow’s ground is too
uncertain for plans And future has a way of falling apart in
mid-flight. After a while you learn that even sunshine burns if
you get too much. So you plant your own garden and decorate your
own soul. Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.
And you learn that you really can endure, that you really are
strong And you really do have worth. And you learn, with every
goodbye you learn…”
~Veronica A. Shoffstall
Pride calls me to the window, gluttony to the table, wantonness to the bed, laziness to the chimney-corner; ambition commands me to go upstairs, and covetousness to come down. Vices, I see, are as well contrary to themselves as to virtue. Free me, Lord, from this distracted case; fetch me from being sin’s servant to be Thine, whose “service is perfect freedom,” for Thou art but one, and ever the same.
... Thomas Fuller (1608-1661), Good Thoughts in Bad Times [1898]
"A leader, once
convinced a particular course of action is the right
one, must have the determination to stick with it and be
undaunted when the going gets rough"
|
Ronald Reagan |
Do not pray for easy lives; pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers
equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you yourself shall be a miracle.
Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has come to you by the grace of God.
... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893)
"The times are dark, the spirits of
ruin are abroad in all their power, and the mercy of God alone
can save us."
-- President Abraham Lincoln, 1862
Going to church doesn’t
make you a Christian, any more than going to a garage makes you
an automobile.
... Billy Sunday (1862-1935)
And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the
year: “Give me a light, that I may tread safely into the
unknown.” And he replied: “Go out into the darkness and put your
hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than
light, and safer than a known way.”
... Minnie L. Haskins (1875-1957), “The Desert”
(c.1908), Introduction
The traditional worship setting is both
the inspiration for faith and fellowship, and the barrier to it.
Due only to Word and Sacrament -- God’s ideas -- is there any
faith to be shared or truth to articulate. However, the very
setting in which this is received instills the fear of
expressing it informally.
... Paul G. Johnson (1931- ), Buried Alive [1968]
"Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle.
We have called by different names brethren of the same principle."
--Thomas
Jefferson
All excess is ill, but drunkenness is of the worst sort. It spoils health, dismounts the mind, and
unmans men. It reveals secrets, is quarrelsome, lascivious, impudent, dangerous and bad.
William Penn (1644 - 1718)