I consider my ability to arouse enthusiasm in men the ...



Quotes gathered by Craig Stephans to be read in light of the authority and truth of scriptures as precedence over all other points of view, opinions and philosophy.

I consider my ability to arouse enthusiasm in men the greatest asset I possess, and the way to develop the best that is in a man is by appreciation and encouragement…So I am anxious to praise but loath to find fault. Charles Schwab

Every man I meet is my superior in some way. In that, I learn of him. Emerson

If there is any one secret of success it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from his angle as well as your own. Ford

The man who can put himself in the place of other men, who can understand the workings of their minds, need never worry about what the future has in store for him. Owen Young

Hatred is never ended by hatred but by love. Buddha

The essential element in personal magnetism is a consuming sincerity—an overwhelming faith in the importance of the work one has to do. Bruce Barton “The Man Nobody Knows”

What you are thunders so loud I can’t hear what you say. Emerson

But I’ve had such horrible misfortunes in my world that my heart is nearly closed to hope. Voltaire “Candide”

What could be more stupid than to persist in carrying a burden that we constantly want to cast off, to hold our existence in horror, yet cling to it nonetheless, to fondle the serpent that devours us, until it has eaten our hearts. Voltaire “Candide”

Privation and suffering alone open the mind to all that is hidden to others. Joseph Campbell “The Power of Myth”

A hero acts to redeem society while a celebrity lives for self. Campbell “The Power of Myth”

A New York social philosopher to a shinto priest: “We’ve been now to a good many ceremonies and have seen quite a few of your shrines, but I don’t get your ideology. I don’t get your theology.” The Japanese paused as though in deep thought and then slowly shook his head, “I don’t think we have ideology,” he said, “We don’t have theology. We dance.” Campbell “..Myth”

People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I think what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive. Campbell “Myth”

The fact that I, myself, do not understand the meanings of my paintings at the time I am painting them does not mean that they have no meaning. Dali

Lloyd Douglas “The Green Light” 1934 novel

“But if you are ever to be immortal…you are immortal now. “

“For your comfort, my son, let me tell you that I have laid hold upon a truth powerful enough to sustain me until I die. I know that, in spite of all the painful circumstances I have met, my course is upward! I know that the universe is on my side! It will not let me down! I have been detained at times—but – eventually – I go on through! I go on through!” he repeated earnestly. “I have suffered – but I know that I am destiny’s darling!…You have suffered – but you, too, can carry on through! Take it from me! I know! In spite of all the little detainments, disappointments, disillusionments—I get the lucky breaks! I get the signal to go forward! I have been delayed – long – long – long- but at length – I get the GREEN LIGHT!”

“The eternity-minded do not believe in catastrophes. There is no place in their vocabulary for such a word as a “crisis.” In their opinion, what the day-to-day and hand-to-mouth opportunists would call a “crisis” is but a phase of the irresistible onward drive!”

Through the eternal, we can conquer the future. Kierkegard

For man may grow until he towers to the skies, but w/o this light he is nothing, and his place is nothing. Even as we try to deny the light we know that it has made us, and what we are without it remains meaningless. L. Eisley

I need little, and that little, I need very little. St. Francis

In so far as one can see, man’s situation, his life, in itself, is disorientation, is being lost…There exists a being, the creator of all this, omnipotent, infinitely wise and good, who communicates with man and directs him by means of revelation, thus making possible an absolute orientation. Can one ask for more? Ortega y Gasset

Living is a revelation. Same

Emerson “Self-Reliance”

To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men…that is genius.

Envy is ignorance; imitation is suicide.

God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.

Infancy conforms to nobody; all conform to it…But the man is as it were clapped into jail by his consciousness.

Whoso would be a man must be a non-conformist.

What I must do is all that concerns me not what people think.

The great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

Virtue or vice emit a breath every moment.

The essence of virtue, of genius, and of life, which we call spontaneity.

Power ceases in the instant of repose.

Nature suffers nothing to remain in her kingdom which cannot help itself.

Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of life from the highest point of view.

Insist on yourself, never imitate.

That which each can do best none but his master can teach him.

Emerson “Compensation”

Power to him who power exerts.

In nature, nothing can be given; all things are sold. Benefit is the end of nature, but for every benefit you receive a tax is levied.

The law of nature is Do the thing and you shall have the power; but they who do not the thing have not the power.

A great man is always willing to be little.

We gain the strength of the temptation we resist.

Napoleon Hill “Think and Grow Rich”

One sound idea is all one needs to achieve success.

We are the masters of our fate, the captains of our souls because we have the power to control our thoughts.

Our brains become magnetized with the dominating thoughts which we hold in our minds and, by means with which no man is familiar, these “magnets” attract to us the forces, the people, the circumstances of the life which harmonize with the nature of our dominating thoughts…we must magnetize our minds with intense desires.

There is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.

Faith is a state of mind which may be induced, or created, by affirmation or repeated instructions to the subconscious mind through the principles of auto suggestions.

Repetition of affirmations of orders to your subconscious mind is the only known method of voluntary development of faith.

All thought which has been emotionalized and mixed with faith begin immediately to translate themselves into their physical equivalent or counterpart.

Faith is the only known antidote for failure.

One comes to believe whatever one repeats to one’s self.

There is one weakness in people for which there is no remedy. It is the universal weakness of lack of ambition.

Enthusiasm is contagious and the person who has it under control is generally welcome in any group of people.

The world has the habit of making room for the man whose words and actions show that he knows where he is going.

What most of us never suspect of existing is the silent but irresistible power which comes to the rescue of those who fight on in the face of discouragement.

Fear, the worst of all enemies, can be effectively cured by forced repetition of acts of courage.

The faculty of creative imagination is the direct link between the finite mind of man and infinite intelligence.

Every human brain is capable of picking up vibrations of thought which are being released by other brains.

Nothing which life has to offer is worth the price of worry.

Quote of D. Valloume, a Franciscan cited by Brennan Manning in “Signature of Jesus”

“All that is not the love of God has no meaning for me. I can truthfully say that I have no interest in anything but the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. If God wants it to, my life will be useful through my word and witness. If he wants it to, my life will bear fruit through my prayers and sacrifices. But the usefulness of my life is his concern not mine. It would be indecent of me to worry about that.”

Daniel Webster

If we work upon marble, it will perish; if we work upon brass, time will efface it; if we rear temples, they will crumble into dust; but if we work upon immortal minds and instill into them just principles, we are then engraving that upon tables which no time will efface, but will brighten and brighten to all eternity.

Montaigne (French essayist)

The first law that ever God gave to man was a law of obedience; it was a commandment pure and simple, wherein man had nothing to inquire after or dispute, for as much as to obey is the proper office of a rational soul acknowledging a heavenly benefactor—from obedience and submission spring all other virtues, as all sin does from self-opinion and self-will.

The most manifest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness. Montaigne

Who would not wish, and find it more delightful and more excellent, to return all dust and sweat victorious from a battle, than from tennis or from a ball, with the prize of these exercises. Montaigne

He who should teach men to die, would at the same time teach them to live. Montaigne

He is most potent who is master of himself. Montaigne

Never let the fear of striking out get in your way. Babe Ruth

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours. He will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. Thoreau “Walden”

The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives. Einstein

One of the reasons mature people stop learning is that they become less and less willing to risk failure. John Gardner, writer & teacher

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Helen Keller

Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstances. Bruce Barton

Thomas A’Kempis “The Imitation of Christ”

Do what lieth in thee and God will assist thy good will.

If thou desirest to be truly contrite in heart, enter into thy secret chamber, and shut out the tumults of the world.

For grace ever attendeth him that daily giveth thanks.

Jesus hath now many lovers of his heavenly kingdom, but few bearers of his cross. Many he hath that are desirous of consolation, but few of tribulation. Many he findeth that share his table, but few his fasting. All desire to rejoice with him, few are willing to endure anything for Him. Many follow Jesus into the breaking of bread; but few to the dwelling of the cup of his passion. Many reverence his miracles, few follow the shame of his cross. Many love Jesus so long as no adversities befall them.

This is it which most of all hindereth heavenly consolation, that thou are too slow in turning thyself unto prayer.

The secret of business is to know something no one else knows. Onassis

Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value. Einstein

Success is the child of audacity. Disraeli

All you need in life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure. Twain

To play great music you must keep your eyes on a distant star. Yehudi Menukin

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing. Lincoln

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. Coolidge

The heights of great men reached and kept,

Were not attained by sudden flight—

But they, while their companions slept,

Were toiling upward in the night. Longfellow

All succeeds with people who are sweet and cheerful. Voltaire

One significant activity that distinguishes high achievers from their less successful counterparts is their love of reading and their corresponding lack of interest in television. George Gallup Jr

Walter Russell quoted by Glenn Clark in “The man who tapped the secrets of the universe”

An inner joyousness, amounting to ecstasy, is the normal condition of the genius mind.

I have absolute faith that anything can come to one who trusts to the unlimited help of the Universal Intelligence within so long as one works within the law and always gives more to others than they expect, and does it cheerfully and courteously.

To achieve greatness one had to go only one inch beyond mediocrity, but that one inch is so hard to go that only those who become aware of God in them can make the grade, for no one can achieve that one inch alone.

Lock yourself up in your room or go out in the woods where you can be alone. When you are alone the universe talks to you in flashes of inspiration. You will find that you will suddenly know things which you never knew before.

I believe that every man can multiply his own ability by almost constant wordless realization of his unity with his source.

The greater the joy within one’s inner consciousness, the greater the force of recharge of thought-energy within one; and that is why I have climaxed my defining words with the word “ecstatic.” The ecstatic man is the most dynamic, the most silent and the most undemonstrative of all men…By ecstatic I mean that rare mental condition which makes an inspired man so supremely happy in his mental concentration that he is practically unaware of everything that goes on around him extraneous to his purpose, but is keenly and vitally aware of everything pertaining to his purpose.

By ecstasy I mean inner joyousness, and by inner joyousness I mean those inspirational fires which burn within the consciousness of great geniuses, fires which give to them an unconquerable vitality of spirit which breaks down all barriers as wheat bends before the wind.

He who cultivates that quiet, unobtrusive ecstasy of inner joyousness can scale any heights and be a leader in his field, no matter what that field is.

The Life triumphant is that which places what a man gives to the world in creative expression far ahead of that which he takes from it of the creation of others.

The Law of the Higher Potential by Robert Collier

A definite purpose, held to in the face of every discouragement and failure, in spite of all obstacles and opposition, will win no matter what the odds.

He who loses his courage loses everything.

“Any wage I had asked of life, life would have paid” Ella Wheeler Wilcox

The goal of life has always been dominion—a means of overcoming all obstacles, of winning dominion over circumstances.

Act as though you already possess the thing you want.

Thought is a magnet

This heaven consciousness comes only as the result of a tremendous desire for spiritual truth, and a hunger and thirst for things of the spirit.

The fundamental law of the universe is that every form of life holds within itself vitality enough to draw to it every element it needs for growth and fruition. But it is only as it casts off all outside support, and puts its dependence solely upon the life force that created it..that it is able to draw to itself the elements it needs for complete growth and fruition.

Life is always and everywhere seeking expression.

Any unselfish expenditure of energy returns to you laden with gifts.

We increase whatever we praise…whatever is praised and blessed multiplies.

It is only lack of responsiveness to good that produces lack in your life.

The vision always precedes and itself determines the realization.

The images we hold steadfastly in our minds over the years are not illusions; they are patterns by which we are able to mold our own destinies.

Doors that are worth entering are usually closed, but the resolute and courageous knock at those doors, and keep knocking persistently until they are opened.

Life is expansion, mentally and physically. When you stop growing, you die.

He who addresses himself to problems every man must come to solve, builds his house on the road, and every man must come to it. Emerson

What have I to give that will add to the happiness of those around me?

Love is magnetism

The purpose of man here is to utilize and distribute God’s good gifts.

The first essential in the creation of anything—is the mental picture or image.

The imagination is of all qualities in man the most Godlike—that which associates him most closely with God.

Gain a mental attitude in which you are constantly expecting good.

The one and only thing you have to win success with is mind. For your mind to function at its highest capacity, you’ve got to be charged with good cheer and optimism.

In every face—in even the plainest and most unfortunate countenances—there is some precious aspect of the divine image of which we are a reflection, and if you look with an open heart, you can see an awesome beauty, a glimpse of something so radiant it gives you joy. Dean Koontz

….loves the ideal more than the reality, which is the cause of all the misery that the human species creates for itself. Koontz

Thomas Merton---Seven Storey Mountain---a quote of a word from God to him

Everything that touches you shall burn you, and you will draw your hand away in pain, until you have withdrawn yourself from all things. Then you will be all alone.

Everything that can be desired will sear you, and brand you with a coterie, and you will fly from it in pain, to be alone. Every created joy will only come to you as pain, and you will die to all joy and be left alone. All the good things that other people love and desire and seek will come to you, but only as murderers to cut you off from the world and its occupations.

You will be praised and it will be like burning at the stake. You will be loved and it will murder you heart and drive you into the desert.

You will have gifts and they will break you with their burden. You will have pleasures of prayer and they will sicken you and you will fly from them.

And when you have been praised a little and loved a little, I will take away all your gifts and all your love and all your praise and you will be utterly forgotten and abandoned and you will be nothing, a dead thing, a rejection. And in that day you shall begin to possess the solitude you have so long desired. And your solitude will bear immense fruit in the souls of men you will never see on earth.

Do not ask when it will be or where it will be. On a mountain or in a prison, in a desert or in a concentration camp…It does not matter, so do not ask me, because I am not going to tell you. You will not know until you are in it.

But you shall taste the true solitude of my anguish and my poverty and I shall lead you into the high places of my joy and you shall die in me and find all things in my mercy which has created you for this end…that you may become the brother of God and learn to know the Christ of the burnt men.

Brennan Manning –Lion and Lamb

It is always true to some extent that we make our images of God. It is even truer that our image of God makes us. One of the most beautiful fruits of knowing the God of Jesus is a compassionate attitude toward ourselves.

Jesus presented a God who does not demand but gives; does not oppress but raises up; does not wound but heals. A God who forgives instead of condemning, and liberates instead of punishing.

The most important thing that ever happens in prayer is letting ourselves be loved by God.

There is a tyranny of public opinion which we often find at work in our lives…The expectations of which often act as a subtle but controlling pressure on our behavior. The crowd does not take kindly to non-conformity.

In prayer, we discover what we already have…Everything has been given to us by the Father in Jesus. All we need now is to experience what we already possess. The most precious moments of prayer consist in letting ourselves be loved by the Lord.

Jesus does not ask us to wait until later until the end for help and healing. Hope is the good news of transforming grace now. We are freed not only from the fear of death but from the fear of life; we are freed for a new life, a life that is trusting, hopeful and compassionate.

There are 3 ways to commit suicide: taking my own life, letting myself die, and letting myself live without hope. This last form of self-destruction is so subtle that it often goes unrecognized, and therefore unchallenged. Ordinarily, it takes the form of boredom, monotony, drudgery, feeling overcome by the ordinariness of life.

Leo Booth-The God Game

Problems arise when people try to control too much behavior, to impose rules and then attach God to them to be sure they are followed.

Part of the structure of a spiritually dead religion is a belief system that implies that if the system isn’t working for you, it’s because something is wrong with you.

For many people, the belief God will get them is no laughing matter. It keeps them in fear and flight from themselves and from God. There are also those who are equally afraid God won’t get them—won’t take care of them and make it better.

Pascal – Penses

I have discovered that all the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber...there is one very real reason...the natural poverty of our feeble and mortal condition, so miserable that nothing can comfort us when we think of it closely...hence...the pleasure of solitude is a thing incomprehensible.

There are two kinds of people one can call reasonable; those who serve God with all their hearts because they know him, and those who seek him with all their hearts because they do not know him.

The knowledge of God is very far from the love of him.

Man is so made that by continually telling him he is a fool he believes it, and by continually telling it to himself he makes himself believe it . For man holds an inward talk with his self alone, which it behooves him to regulate well.

Merton—“Seven Storey Mountain”

Is it any wonder that there can be no peace in a world where everything possible is done to guarantee that the youth of every nation will grow up absolutely without moral and religious discipline, and without the shadow of an interior life, or of that spirituality and charity and faith which alone can safeguard the treatsies and agreements made by governments.

The logic of worldly success rests on a fallacy: the strange error that our perfection depends on the thoughts and opinions and applause of other men. A weird life it is indeed, to be living always in somebody else’s imagination as if that were the only place in which one could at last become real.

The difference between a good play and a great play is that after the experience of a great play we understand a little more about why we are alive. Kenneth Tyron-critic

Aristotle

All men by nature have a desire to know. Aristotle

For what is most divine is also most valuable. A

For there is something always moving the things that are being moved; and the first mover is itself unmoved.

There must be some eternal and immovable substance.

It (God) produces motion by being loved, and what it moves moves all things else.

Even in these circumstances (painful ones), nobility shines out when a person bears with calmness the weight of accumulated misfortunes, not from insensibility but from dignity and greatness of spirit. A

No high-minded person will dwell on the past, least of all past injuries; he will prefer to overlook them.

Relaxation and fun are indispensable elements of life.

The function of the intellect generally is the apprehension of truth. The function of the practical intellect is the apprehension of truth in order to promote right desire.

Vice distorts and deceives the mind when it comes to principles of actions.

Without friends no one would choose to live, even though he possessed every other good…if a man is to be happy he will need good friends.

Happiness reaches as far as the power of thought does, and the greater a person’s power of thought, the greater will be his happiness; not as something accidental but in virtue of his thinking, for that is noble in itself. Happiness must be a form of contemplation.

Most people are controlled by necessity rather than by reason and by fear of punishment rather than by love of nobility.

If nature makes nothing incomplete, and nothing in vain, the inference must be that she has made all animals and plants for the sake of man. Aristotle

You cannot set up a court in the kingdom of the blind and condemn those who see. Dan Berrigan

In our journey, we so often feel abandoned, and we need only to be reassured that we are not alone. Koontz

Let us replace sentimentalism by realism, and dare to uncover those simple and terrible laws which, be they seen or unseen, pervade and govern. Emerson

When we don’t allow ourselves to hope, we don’t allow ourselves to have purpose. Without purpose, without meaning, life is dark. We’ve no light within, and we’re just living to die. Koontz

The glory of God is the human being fully alive. And the life of the human consists in beholding God. Iraneus

Too often the church is an enemy of our solitude. Too often the church is one more agent in the vast social conspiracy of togetherness and noise aimed at distracting us from encountering ourselves. The church keeps us busy on this course or that, this committee or that trying to provide meaning through motion until we get burned out and withdraw from the church’s life. Even in its core act of worship the church provides little space for the silent and solitary inward journey to occur. Parker Palmer, author

Self-consciousness has seeded self-hatred. Manning

Being fully present in the now is perhaps the premier skill of the spiritual life. Manning

We do not sing because we are happy. We are happy because we sing. William James

To the poet, to the philosopher, to the saint all things are friendly and sacred, all events profitable, all days holy, all men divine. Emerson

He that writes to himself writes to an eternal public. Emerson

Let us lie low in the Lord’s power and learn that truth alone makes rich and great. Emerson

The magnanimous know very well that they who give time, or money, or shelter to the stranger—so it be done for love and not for ostentation-do, as it were, put God under obligation to them, so perfect are the compensations of the universe. Emerson

The great will not condescend to take anything seriously. Emerson

That which we are we shall teach, not voluntarily but involuntarily. Emerson

Every man believes that he has a greater possibility. Emerson

The poet’s habit of living should be set on a key so low that the common influences should delight him. His cheerfulness should be the gift of the sunlight; the air should suffice for his inspiration, and he should be tipsy with water. Emerson

Into every intelligence there is a door which is never closed, through which the Creator passes. Emerson

The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship. Emerson

Concentration is the secret of strength in politics, in war, in trade, in short, in all management of human affairs. Emerson

When you come into the room, I think I will study how to make humanity beautiful to you. Emerson

To make knowledge valuable, you must have the cheerfulness of wisdom…power dwells with cheerfulness…a man should make life and nature happen to us. Emerson

Life begins today for the person who meets himself. At whatever age this great event occurs, life, deep and full, wells up and from that time on it can truly be said one lives. Strangely enough, multitudes of men and women are born, spend their days and die, never having really known themselves. NV Peale

Yet take thy way, for sure thy way is best;

Stretch or contract me, thy poor debter

This is but tuning of my breast,

To make the music better. George Herbert “The Temple”

In short, I must trust him (Jesus) completely. If I do, I have nothing to fear—regardless of the pain and frustration of the present moment. I must also find joy in my friends—those who love me and support me. But it is a two – way street: I must also love and support them…If the union with Jesus is to be deeply rooted, stable, then it must be nourished constantly by prayer…friendship cannot be sustained without continual presence and communication. Joseph Cardinal Bernadin

The fear of public speaking is fearing ostracism, criticism, standing out, being an outcast; the fear of being different prevents most people from seeking new ways to solve their problems. Robert Kiyosaki "Rich Dad, Poor Dad”

Human kind cannot bear very much reality. TS Eliot

Do not waste time bothering whether you love your neighbor, act as if you did. CS Lewis

To be free is often to be lonely. WH Auden

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another. Charles Dickens

This is what is driving our whole civilization into suicide; the feeling that we are living existences in which nothing matters very much…for the poet everything matters and it matters a lot—that is the realm where we work. James Dickey

The Pilgrim is deeply in love with his God and never tires of communicating with Him. Through this constant communion with his Lord and master he gains much wisdom and understanding; he learns that true riches are of the spirit and are accessible to all. He knows as few of us do that a wholehearted response to the message of the gospel is the only one that makes sense and satisfies the very core of our being. He knows that to give God one's all means in the truest sense to gain all. He knows that the cost of discipleship will never begin to measure up to the rewards which await the faithful disciple who does the will of the father, both here and hereafter. He knows the secret of interior freedom and what it means to have one’s hunger and thirst satisfied. He knows the beauty of each creature. He knows the deep, abiding joy and peace which surpass all understanding. Yes, he knows how absolutely wonderful God is in His love and mercy to all his children but especially to those who unconditionally open their hearts to him. Helen Bacoucin Preface to “The Way of the Pilgrim”

The Christian is expected to perform many good works, but the act of prayer is fundamental because without prayer it is not possible to do good. Without frequent prayer it is not possible to find one’s way to God, to understand truth, and to crucify the lusts of the flesh. Only fidelity to prayer will lead a person to enlightenment and union with Christ. Way of The Pilgrim

How merciful is our Lord Jesus Christ and how great is his love! By what different paths he draws sinners to himself and with what wisdom he transforms small happenings into great and significant ones. Way of the Pilgrim

Too pray often is in our will, but to pray truly is a gift of grace. St. Macarius

In society today, we are half asleep when awake and half awake when asleep. Erich Fromm

The ability to be alone is a condition for the ability to love. Fromm

The decision to grow always involves a choice between risk and comfort. John Ortberg

Creative achievements depend on single-minded immersion. Quoted by Ortberg

One of the surest marks of greatness, of course, is accessibility and the appearance of having an unstinted allowance of time. Bruce Barton

Great progress will be made in the world when we rid ourselves of the idea that there is a difference between work and religious work. Barton

The world is full of broken people. Splints, casts, miracle drugs, and time can’t mend fractured hearts, wounded minds, torn spirits. Koontz

A civilization spiraling into an abyss often finds the spiral thrilling and sometimes loves the promise of the depths below. People often see the romance of darkness but cannot see the ultimate terror that waits at the bottom, in the deepest blackness. Consequently, they resist the hand of truth extended, regardless of the goodwill with which it’s offered, and have been known to kill their would be benefactors. Koontz

From time to time someone so special comes along that upon meeting him or her, the direction of your life shifts unexpectedly, and you are therewith changed forever and for the better. Koontz

What do you do with the skeptic? You get him to talk. Aristotle

Victor Hugo “Les Miserables”

Man lives by affirmation even more than he does by bread

To meditate is to labor; to think is to act.

Laughter is sunshine; it chases winter from the human face.

All sublime conquests are, more or less, the rewards of daring…The onward march of the human race requires that the heights around it should be ablaze with noble and enduring lessons of courage. Deeds of daring dazzle history, and form one of the guiding lights of man. The dawn dares when it rises. To strive, to brave all risks, to persist, to persevere, to be faithful to yourself, to grapple hand to hand with destiny, to surprise defeat by the little terror it inspires, at one time to confront unrighteous power, at another to defy intoxicated triumph, to hold fast, to hold hard-such is the example which the nations need, and the light that electrifies them.

There is nothing like dream to create the future.

Were it given to our eye of flesh to see into the consciences of others, we should judge a man much more surely from what he dreams than from what he thinks. There is will in the thought, there is none in the dream. The dream, which is completely spontaneous, takes and keeps, even in the gigantic and the ideal, the form of our mind. Nothing springs more directly and more sincerely from the very bottom of our souls than our unreflected and indefinite aspirations towards the splendours of destiny. In these aspirations, much more than in ideas which are combined, studied and compared, we can find the true character of each man. Our chimeras are what most resemble ourselves. Each one dreams the unknown and the impossible according to his own nature.

Happy, even in anguish, is he to whom God has given a soul worthy of love and of grief. He who has not seen the things of this world, and the hearts of men by this double light, has seen nothing, and knows nothing of the truth. The soul which loves and which suffers is in the sublime state.

The world lets everything fall and die, which is nothing but selfishness, everything which does not represent a virtue or an idea for the human race.

Look closely into life. It is so constituted that we feel punishment everywhere.

When you know and when you love, you shall suffer still…The luminous weep, were it only over the dark.

An admirable thing, the poetry of a people is the element of its progress. The amount of civilization is measured by the amount of imagination. Only a civilizing people must remain a manly people.

Only motivation is absolutely across the board present in all …eminent people whose lives present the most striking examples of calling, according to a study by Harvard professor Albert Rothenberg. James Hillman “The Soul’s Code”

I can never predict what tiny, trivial bit of input will result in a huge and significant output. I must always remain acutely sensitive to initial conditions, such as what or who comes into the world with me and enters the world with me each day. On that I remain dependent. Hillman

Imagining demands absolute attention. Hillman

Intuition sees everything at once given as a whole. Time strings things out into a chain of successive events leading toward a finishing line. Hillman

The requirement for true intimacy is chunks of unhurried time. Ortberg

Every human being you know is making a request of their friends, though it usually goes unspoken. Here’s what they ask: “Motivate me. Call out the best in me. Believe in me. Encourage me when I’m tempted to quit. Speak truth to me and remind me of my deepest values. Help me achieve my greatest potential. Tell me again what God called me to be, what I might yet become.” Ortberg

Sun Tzu “Art of War”

Warfare is the greatest affair of state, the basis of life and death, the Way (Tao) to survival or extinction. It must be thoroughly pondered and analyzed.

One who knows the enemy and knows himself will not be endangered in a hundred engagements…One who knows neither the enemy nor himself will invariably be defeated in every engagement.

The one who excels in warfare first establishes himself in a position where he cannot be defeated while not losing any opportunity to defeat the enemy….one who excels in warfare compels men and is not compelled by other men.

If you know heaven and know earth, your victory will be complete.

The Tao of the true king must be to generously love his people.

Fyodor Dystoveky “Brothers Karamazov”

Loving humility is a terrible force, the most powerful of all, the like of which there is none.

Love is an instructress, but one must know how to acquire her, for she is acquired with effort, purchased dearly, by long labor and over a long season, for it is not simply for a casual moment that one must love, but for the whole of the appointed season. After all anyone is capable of loving casually, even the doer of evil.

Much upon earth is concealed from us, but in recompense for that we have been gifted with a mysterious, sacred sense of our living connection with another world, with a celestial and higher world, and indeed the roots of our thoughts and emotions are not here, but in other worlds.

Untiringly, insatiably, love, love all creatures, love all things, seek this ecstasy and this frenzy.

There is nothing harder or less sentimental than Christian realism. Flannery O’Connor

George Weigel “Letters to a Young Catholic”

Every Christian has a vocation—a unique something that only you can do in the providence of God…that same providence will, mercifully, repair and make straight whatever false steps we take in living out our vocational commitments.

The poet only desires exaltation and expansion, a world to stretch himself in. The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits. GK Chesterton

The mystic allows one thing to be mysterious, and everything else becomes lucid. Chesterton

For solemnity flows out men naturally; but laughter is a leap. It is easy to be heavy; hard to be light. Satan fell by force of gravity. Chesterton

By taking himself too seriously—by taking himself with ultimate seriousness—Satan fell. Weigel

Love is not merely a feeling or sentiment, but rather a spiritual drive within us, a drive for communion. Weigel

Death to self is the ultimate form of human liberation. Weigel

Genuine intellectual life is impossible without theology. John Henry Newman

Joseph Campbell “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”

It may well be that the very high incidence of neuroticism among ourselves follows from the decline among us of such effective spiritual aid.

The hero is the man of self-achieved submission.

Only birth can conquer death—the birth, not of the old thing again, but of something new.

The first work of the hero is to retreat from the world scene of secondary effects to those causal zones of the psyche where the difficulties really reside, and there to clarify difficulties, eradicate them in his own case and break through to the undistorted, direct experience and assimilation of the archetypal images.

The hero has died as a modern man; but as eternal man—perfected unspecific, universal man—he has been reborn. His second solemn task and deed therefore is to return to us, transfigured, and teach the lesson he has learned of life renewal.

Perhaps some of us have to go through dark and devious ways before we can find the river of peace or the high road to the soul’s destination.

It is only those who know neither an inner call nor an outer doctrine whose plight is truly desperate.

The really creative acts are represented as those deriving from some sort of dying to the world.

Willed introversion is one of the classic implements of creative genius and can be employed as a deliberate device.

One has only to know and trust and the ageless guardians will appear.

Rothenberg MD “Creativity and Madness”

The creative process requires an ability to tolerate high levels of anxiety and a relative lack of defensiveness in order to proceed.

For not by art does the poet sing, but by power divine. Plato

Just as a need to control interferes with turning destructiveness into creation in art, so it interferes with turning self-destructive feelings into a process of self-creation in life.

Imagination and creativity consist of special abilities to go beyond one’s own experience and history in order to bring forth new ideas and things.

G Forde “On Being a Theologian of the Cross”

The soul’s insatiable thirst for glory is not ended by satisfying it but rather by extinguishing it. Luther

Superficial optimism breeds ultimate despair.

The love of God does not find, but creates that which is pleasing to it.

It is impossible to trust in God unless one has despaired in all creatures and knows that nothing can profit one without God. Luther

Free will without grace has the power to do nothing but sin. St. Augustine

As theologians of the cross we operate on the premise that faith in the crucified and risen one is all we have going for us.

Knowledge of God comes when God happens to us, when God does himself to us.

Works that can be called good flow from righteousness as from an overflowing vessel.

Grace, instead of demanding love, simply gives it unconditionally.

Every act of Christ is instruction for us, indeed a motivation.

The impetus to good works comes entirely from being moved, aroused, and motivated by the completed work of the Christ, who dwells in the believer through faith.

St. John of the Cross “Dark night of the soul”

Persons who are thus inclined to such pleasures have another very great imperfection, which is that they are very weak and remiss in journeying upon the hard road of the cross; for the soul that is given to sweetness naturally has its face set against all self-denial, which is devoid of sweetness.

Communications which are indeed of God have this property, that they humble the soul and at the same time exalt it.

For it is love alone that unites and joins the soul with God.

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Goethe

Oh my soul, be prepared for the coming of the Stranger. Be prepared for him who knows how to ask questions. TS Eliot The Rock

Richard J. Foster Prayer

True, whole prayer is nothing but love. St. Augustine

To be effective pray-ers we need to be effective lovers….real prayer comes not from gritting our teeth but from falling in love.

To pray is to change.

We experience the agony of prayerlessness.

To pray means to be willing to be naïve. Emilie Griffin “Clinging: the experience of prayer.”

We might just as well get used to the idea that, sooner or later, we, too, will know what it means to be forsaken by God.

Darkness is a definite experience of prayer. It is to be expected, even embraced.

God creates everything out of nothing—and everything which God is to use he first reduces to nothing. Kierkegaard

Crucifixion of the will…means freedom to care for others, to genuinely put their needs first, to give joyfully and freely.

Humility means to live as close to the truth as possible: the truth about ourselves, the truth about others, the truth about the world in which we live.

Humility is the principal aid to prayer. Teresa of Avila

Without solitude it is virtually impossible to live a spiritual life. Henri Nouwen

We are “never less alone than when alone.” St. Jerome

Freedom is the product of discipline and commitment

We regard falling from God’s friendship as the only thing dreadful and we consider becoming God’s friend the only thing worthy of honor and desire. This…is the perfection of life. Gregory of Nyssa “The Life of Moses”

Progress in intimacy with God means progress toward silence.

Signs of maturing faith: Continuing hunger for intimacy with God, an ability to forgive others at great personal cost, a living sense that God alone can satisfy the longings of the human heart, a deep satisfaction in prayer, a realistic assessment of personal abilities and shortcomings, a freedom from boasting about spiritual accomplishments and demonstrated ability to live out the demands of life patiently and wisely.

While union is entirely a work of God upon the heart there are two vital preparations from our side of the equation: love of God and purity of heart.

The message of hope the contemplative offers you is not that you need to find your way through the jungle of language and problems that today surround God: but that …”God loves you, is present in you, lives in you, dwells in you, calls you, saves you, and offers you an understanding and light which are like nothing you ever found in books or heard in sermons. Thomas Merton

His wisdom burns away all the impurities in a man for one purpose: to leave him fit for divine union. Madame Guyon

Purity of heart is to will one thing. Kierkegaard

Everything that one turns in the direction of God is prayer. Ignatius of Loyola

A part of our petition must always be for an increasing discernment so that we can see things as God sees them.

To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world. Karl Barth

Any faith that makes the blessedness of people dependent upon anyone or anything other than God himself is, to that extent, a false faith.

Most people desperately desire to believe that they are part of a great mystery, that Creation is a work of grace and glory, not merely the result of random forces colliding. Yet each time they are given but one reason to doubt, a worm in the apple of the heart makes them turn away from a thousand proofs of the miraculous, whereupon they have a drunkard’s thirst for cynicism, and they feed upon despair as a starving man upon a loaf of bread. Koontz Odd Thomas

The Dark Night of the Soul Gerald May MD

Freedom and gratitude are abiding characteristics of the dark night. But they don’t arrive until the darkness passes. They come with the dawn.

The dark night is a profoundly good thing. It is an ongoing spiritual process in which we are liberated from attachments and compulsions and empowered to live and love more freely.

Noone is so advanced in prayer that they do not often have to return to the beginning. Teresa of Avila

The deepening of love is the real purpose of the dark night of the soul. The dark night helps us become who we were created to be: lovers of God and lovers of one another.

Liberation whether experienced pleasurably or painfully always involves relinquishment, some kind of loss.

Most of us live in a world of overstimulation and sensory overload. Without realizing it, we erect defenses against our own perceptions in order to avoid being overwhelmed. To some extent, this deadens our sensitivity and dulls our perceptiveness. We find ourselves no longer appreciative of the subtle sensations, delicate fragrances, soft sounds, and exquisite feelings we enjoyed as children.

Our individual stories are colored and textured by who we are as individuals and by God’s unique ways of loving us—ways that can never be prescribed, only discovered.

The contemplatives often sense an invitation to pray with God, to share God’s joy and sorrow, which in turn God is sharing with all creation. There is a notion here of keeping God company in whatever God is experiencing.

Seeing things as they were and not as he wished they were was one of Washington’s salient strengths. From the book 1776 David McCullough

"Duty then is the sublimest word in the English language. You should do your duty in all things. You can never do more, you should never wish to do less." Robert E. Lee

Worship is basically adoration, and we adore only what delights us. There is no such thing as sad adoration or unhappy praise. John Piper “Desiring God”

I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord…not how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man may be nourished…I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditation upon it. George Muller of Bristol quoted by John Piper in “Desiring God”

If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us. CS Lewis “The Weight of Glory”

Thomas Merton “No Man is an Island”

If I am to love my brother, I must somehow enter deep into the mystery of God’s love for him.

Love seeks one thing only: the good of the one loved. It leaves all the other secondary effects to take care of themselves. Love, therefore, is its own reward.

It is the very essence of Christianity to face suffering and death not because they are good, not because they have meaning, but because the Resurrection of Jesus has robbed them of their meaning.

Sin strikes at the very depth of our personality. It destroys the one reality on which our true character, identity, and happiness depend: our fundamental orientation to God.

A community that seeks to invade or destroy the spiritual solitude of the individuals who compose it is condemning itself to death by spiritual asphyxiation.

Do not desire chiefly to be cherished and consoled by God; desire above all to love him. Do not anxiously desire to have others find consolation in God, but rather help them to love God.

It is not seldom that our silence and our prayers do more to bring people to the knowledge of God than all our words about Him.

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