Category: Wisdom (Page 11 of 13)

Willa Cather was born December 7, 1873, near Winchester, Virginia. When she was nine years old, her family moved to the town of Red Cloud, Nebraska, living among the newly-arrived immigrants from Europe. She attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. After college she spent the next few years doing newspaper work and teaching high school in Pittsburgh.

Cather published a few short stories before becoming managing editor of McClure’s and, in 1912, began writing novels full-time. She moved to New York City and worked for six years on the editorial staff of McClure’s Magazine. Cather won the Pulitzer Prize in 1923 for “One of Ours.” She died on April 24, 1947.

“No one can build his security upon the nobleness of another person.”

“Religion and art spring from the same root and are close kin. Economics and art are strangers.”

“The miracles of the church seem to me to rest not so much upon faces or voices or healing power coming suddenly near to us from afar off, but upon our perceptions being made finer, so that for a moment our eyes can see and our ears can hear what is there about us always.”

“Elsewhere the sky is the roof of the world; but here the earth is the floor of the sky.”

“I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do.”

“There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.”

“Only solitary men know the full joys of friendship. Others have their family; but to a solitary and an exile, his friends are everything.”

“When kindness has left people, even for a few moments, we become afraid of them as if their reason had left them. When it has left a place where we have always found it, it is like shipwreck; we drop from security into something malevolent and bottomless.”

“Where there is great love there are always miracles.”

John Calvin (1509 to 1564) was born at Noyon, France. At fourteen he was sent to Paris to study theology, and developed a particular interest in the writings of Augustine. His father then insisted that he take up law instead, which he did for three years, returning to theology when his father died.

In about 1534, he underwent a sudden conversion and became an ardent Protestant. He went to Basel, a Protestant city in Switzerland, where he wrote and published the first edition of his Institutes of the Christian Religion. In 1536, he became one of the preachers in the city of Geneva, in 1538 he was banished, and in 1541 returned in triumph, and established a form of church government that has been associated ever since with churches called Reformed or Presbyterian. It provided for a set of boards or consistories to maintain discipline in local congregations and in district-wide groups of congregations, boards consisting partly of clergy and partly of the elected representatives of the congregation.

“For (such is our innate pride) we always seem to ourselves just, and upright, and wise, and holy, until we are convinced, by clear evidence, of our injustice, vileness, folly, and impurity.”

“For, until men feel that they owe everything to God, that they are cherished by his paternal care, and that he is the of all their blessings, so that naught is to be looked for away from him, they will never submit to him in voluntary obedience; nay, unless they place their entire happiness in him, they will never yield up their whole selves to him in truth and sincerity.”

“…All men promiscuously do homage to God, but very few truly reverence him. On all hands there is abundance of ostentatious ceremonies, but sincerity of heart is rare.”

“It is most absurd, therefore, to maintain, as some do, that religion was devised by the cunning and craft of a few individuals, as a means of keeping the body of the people in due subjection … I readily acknowledge, that designing men have introduced a vast number of fictions into religion, with the view of inspiring the populace with reverence or striking them with terror, and thereby rendering them more obsequious; but they never could have succeeded in this, had the minds of men not been previously imbued with that uniform belief in God, from which, as from its seed, the religious propensity springs.”

“But herein appears the shameful ingratitude of men. Though they have in their own persons a factory where innumerable operations of God are carried on, and a magazine stored with treasures of inestimable value, instead of bursting forth in his praise, as they are bound to do, they, on the contrary, are the more inflated and swelled with pride.”

Gaius Julius Caesar (100 BC 44 BC), who would become the first Emperor of Rome, was born on 13 July, 100 B.C. He was born at a chaotic time in Roman history, brought about largely by the rapid expansion of the Roman Empire. The first 20 years of Caesars life were typified by rivalries between the Senate and the Assembly. The electoral system in Rome was also corrupt.

The strength of character, strong will and courage of the most ambitious person of his time are expressed in these three words:

“Veni, Vidi, Vici.” – “I came, I saw, I conquered !”

Credited with the conquest of Gaul and the invasion of Britain, he was a great orator and politician who under his able leadership restored discipline, peace and prosperity throughout the vast Roman Empire. Though a ruler, he led a modest life till his murder in 44 BC.

“It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die, than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience.”

“As a rule, men worry more about what they can’t see than about what they can.”

The Automaton

Hugo is a 2011 film set in 1930’s Paris in Hugo’s automaton which an orphan named Hugo Cabret lives in the walls of a train station. The movie is wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father and an automaton, a moving mechanical device made to imitate a human being. This machine performs a function according to a predetermined set of coded instructions that sets the theme of the movie’s mystery.

Hugo is directed by Martin Scorsese, written by John Logan and is based the novel “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” by Brian Selznick.

“I’d imagine the whole world was one big machine. Machines never come with any extra parts, you know. They always come with the exact amount they need. So I figured, if the entire world was one big machine, I couldn’t be an extra part. I had to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too.”

John Bunyan was born in 1628 and had very little schooling. He followed his father in the tinker’s trade, and he served in the parliamentary army from 1644 to 1647. Bunyan married in 1649 and lived in Elstow until 1655, when his wife died. He then moved to Bedford, and married again in 1659. John Bunyan was received into the Baptist church in Bedford by immersion in 1653.

In 1655, Bunyan became a deacon and began preaching, with marked success from the start. In 1658 he was indicted for preaching without a license. The authorities were fairly tolerant of him for a while, and he did not suffer imprisonment until November of 1660, when he was taken to the county jail in Silver Street, Bedford, and there confined (with the exception of a few weeks in 1666) for 12 years until January 1672. Bunyan afterward became pastor of the Bedford church. In March of 1675 he was again imprisoned for preaching publicly without a license, this time being held in the Bedford town jail. In just six months this time he was freed, (no doubt the authorities were growing weary of providing Bunyan with free shelter and food) and he was not bothered again by the authorities.

John Bunyan wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress in two parts, of which the first appeared at London in 1678,which he had begun during his imprisonment in 1676. The second part appeared in 1684. The earliest edition in which the two parts were combined in one volume came out in 1728. A third part falsely attributed to Bunyan appeared in 1693. The Pilgrim’s Progress is the most successful allegory ever written, and like the Bible has been extensively translated into other languages. It well may be the second most translated book beyond the Scriptures.

John Bunyan wrote many other books, became involved in most interesting controversies such as water baptisms of immersion and argued in favor of the Lord’s Supper only for baptized believers. On a trip to London, John Bunyan caught a severe cold, and he died at the house of a friend at Snow Hill on August 31, 1688. His grave lies in the cemetery at Bunhill Fields in London.

“Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer.”

“When you pray, rather let your heart be without words than your words without heart.”

“He who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find him the rest of the day.”

“You can do more than pray, after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed.”

“If we have not quiet in our minds, outward comfort will do no more for us than a golden slipper on a gouty foot.”

“There is a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue.”

“But pleasures are like poppies spread: You seize the flower,–its bloom is shed.”

“Nae man can tether time nor tide.”

“One leak will sink a ship: and one sin will destroy a sinner.”

“Words easy to be understood do often hit the mark; when high and learned ones do only pierce the air.”

Phillips Brooks (Born in Boston, MA December 13, 1835 – Died January 23, 1893) was an American clergyman. He was ordained as an Episcopal priest in 1860 and is best known for writing the Christmas carol, “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” Brooks education included Boston Latin School, Virginia Theological Seminary, Harvard University. During the American Civil War, he upheld the cause of the North and opposed slavery, fighting for the rights of freed slaves to vote. He helped to design the Trinity Church building, which is located in Boston’s Back Bay. In 1877, Brooks published a course of lectures on preaching for Yale’s theological school.

“Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks.”

“Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men!”

“I do not pray for a lighter load, but for a stronger back.”

“A prayer in its simplest definition is merely a wish turned Godward.”

“A man who lives right, and is right, has more power in his silence than another has by his words.”

“Bear with the faults of others as you would have them bear with yours.”

“The man who has begun to live more seriously within begins to live more simply without.”

“Charity should begin at home, but should not stay there.”

“Be patient and understanding. Life is too short to be vengeful or malicious.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born on February 4, 1906, in Breslau, Germany. Later a student in Tubingen, Berlin, and at Union Theological Seminary in New York, Bonhoeffer became known as one of the few figures of the 1930s with a comprehensive grasp of both German and English-language theology. He wrote his dissertation, Sanctorum Communio, at the end of three years at the University of Berlin (1924-1927) and was awarded his doctorate with honors. Bonhoeffer spent a postgraduate year at Union Theological Seminary in New York. He assumed his post as a lecturer in theology at the University of Berlin in August 1931.

Bonhoeffer’s theologically rooted opposition to National Socialism first made him a leader and an advocate on behalf of the Jews. Indeed, his efforts to help a group of Jews escape to Switzerland were what first led to his arrest and imprisonment in the spring 1943. Bonhoeffer was also a spiritual writer, a musician, and an of fiction and poetry. The integrity of his Christian faith and life, and the international appeal of his writings, have led to a broad consensus that he is the one theologian of his time to lead future generations of Christians into the new millenium.

He was hanged in the concentration camp at Flossenbrg on April 9, 1945, one of four members of his immediate family to die at the hands of the Nazi regime for their participation in the small Protestant resistance movement.

“It is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.”

“Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.”

“If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction.”

“The essence of optimism is that it takes no account of the present, but it is a source of inspiration, of vitality and hope where others have resigned; it enables a man to hold his head high, to claim the future for himself and not to abandon it to his enemy.”

“The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.”

“A God who let us prove his existence would be an idol.”

“It is the characteristic excellence of the strong man that he can bring momentous issues to the fore and make a decision about them. The weak are always forced to decide between alternatives they have not chosen themselves.”

“We are silent at the beginning of the day because God should have the first word, and we are silent before going to sleep because the last word also belongs to God.”

“If you do a good job for others, you heal yourself at the same time, because a dose of joy is a spiritual cure.”

“During the last year or so, I have come to appreciate the “worldliness” of Christianity as never before. The Christian is not a homo religiosus but a man, pure and simple, just as Jesus became man… It is only by living completely in this world that one learns to believe. One must abandon every attempt to make something of oneself, whether it be a saint, a converted sinner, a churchman, a righteous man, or an unrighteous one, a sick man or a healthy one… This is what I mean by worldliness — taking life in one’s stride, with all its duties and problems, its successes and failures, its experiences and helplessness… How can success make us arrogant or failure lead us astray, when we participate in the sufferings of God by living in this world?”

Napoleon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769 on the island of Corsica. Through his military exploits and his ruthless efficiency, Napoleon rose from obscurity to become the Emperor of France.

Napoleon decided on a military career when he was a child, winning a scholarship to a French military academy . His meteoric rise shocked not only France but all of Europe, and his military conquests threatened the stability of the world. Napoleon was one of the greatest military commanders in history.

As Emperor, Napoleon granted constitutions, introduced law codes, abolished feudalism, created efficient governments and fostered education, science, literature and the arts. After a long illness, suffering from cancer, he died May 5, 1821 and is entombed under the dome of the Invalides in Paris.

“Ability is of little account without opportunity.”

“The world suffers a lot. Not because the violence of bad people. But because of the silence of the good people.”

“Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.”

“Courage is like love; it must have hope to nourish it.”

“Adversity is the midwife of genius.”

“Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.”

“Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.”

“There is no place in a fanatic’s head where reason can enter.”

“Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.”

“A people which is able to say everything becomes able to do everything.”

“Men are more easily governed through their vices than their virtues.”

“The herd seek out the great, not for their sake but for their influence; and the great welcome them out of vanity or need.”

“The stupid speak of the past, the wise of the present, and fools of the future.”

“We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him.”

“The best way to keep one’s word is not to give it.”

“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”

“I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creation of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour, millions would die for Him.”

William John Henry Boetcker (1873–1962) was an American religious leader and influential public speaker. He was born in Hamburg, Germany and ordained a Presbyterian minister soon after his arrival in the United States as a young adult. He quickly gained attention as an eloquent motivational speaker, and is often regarded today as the forerunner of such contemporary “success coaches” as Anthony Robbins.

An outspoken political conservative, Rev. Boetcker is perhaps best remembered for his authorship of a pamphlet entitled The Ten Cannots. Originally published in 1916, it is often misattributed to Abraham Lincoln. The error apparently stems from a leaflet printed in 1942 by a conservative political organization called the Committee for Constitutional Government. The leaflet bore the title “Lincoln on Limitations” and contained some genuine Lincoln quotations on one side and the “Ten Cannots” on the other, with the attributions switched. The mistake of crediting Lincoln for having been the source of “The Ten Cannots” has been repeated many times since, most notably by Ronald Reagan in a speech he gave at the 1992 Republican convention in Houston.

There are several minor variants of the pamphlet in circulation, but the most commonly-accepted version appears below:

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
You cannot build character and courage by destroying men’s initiative and independence.
And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) was the of supernatural stories along with those of Poe. He is also noted for his tales of the Civil War, which drew on his own experience as a Union cartographer and officer. His first job in journalism was as editor for the San Francisco News-Letter and California Advertiser (1868-72), writing the entries of the “Town Crier” which constituted the first real newspaper column. Ambrose Bierce’s true love was satire in any form.

In time, Bierce established himself a kind of literary dictator of the West Coast and was so respected and feared as a critic that his judgement could “make or break” an aspiring ‘s reputation. Well-known by his mere initials, A.G.B., his enemies and detractors called him “Almighty God Bierce.” Bierce is best remembered for his cynical but humourous Devil’s Dictionary.

In 1913, at the age of seventy-one, Bierce disappeared into revolution-torn Mexico to fight alongside the bandit Pancho Villa. Although a popular theory is that Bierce argued with Villa over military strategy and was subsequently shot, he probably perished in the battle of Ojinaga on January 11, 1914. Here are a few of Abmrose Bierce’s definitions.

Absurdity, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one’s own opinion.

Acquaintance. A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to.

Beauty, n: the power by which a woman charms a lover and terrifies a husband.

Bigot: One who is obstinately and zealously attached to an opinion that you do not entertain.

Bore: a person who talks when you wish him to listen.

Bride: A woman with a fine prospect of happiness behind her.

Childhood: the period of human life intermediate between the idiocy of infancy and the folly of youth – two removes from the sin of manhood and three from the remorse of age.

Consult: To seek approval for a course of action already decided upon.

Coward: One who, in a perilous emergency, thinks with his legs.

Dawn: When men of reason go to bed.

Day, n. A period of twenty-four hours, mostly misspent.

Debt, n. An ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slave driver.

Destiny: A tyrant’s authority for crime and a fool’s excuse for failure.

Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.

Happiness: an agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another.

Immortality: A toy which people cry for, And on their knees apply for, dispute, contend and lie for, And if allowed Would be right proud Eternally to die for.

Liberty: One of Imagination’s most precious possessions.

Litigation: A machine, which you go into as a pig and come out of as a sausage.

Logic: The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding.

Love: A temporary insanity curable by marriage.

Mad, adj.: Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence.

Marriage, n: the state or condition of a community consisting of a master, a mistress, and two slaves, making in all, two.

Mayonnaise: One of the sauces which serve the French in place of a state religion.

Painting, n.: The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather, and exposing them to the critic.

Patience, n. A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue.

Philosophy: A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing.

Photograph: a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art.

Politeness, n: The most acceptable hypocrisy.

Politics: A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

Pray, v.: To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy.

Prescription: A physician’s guess at what will best prolong the situation with least harm to the patient.

Religion. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.

Saint: A dead sinner revised and edited.

Sweater, n.: garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly.

Telephone, n. An invention of the devil which abrogates some of the advantages of making a disagreeable person keep his distance.

Vote: the instrument and symbol of a freeman’s power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country.