Category: Wisdom (Page 2 of 13)

Proverbs 22:1-4¹NIV New International Version Translations
1 A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold. 2 Rich and poor have this in common: The Lord is the Maker of them all. 3 The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty. 4 Humility is the fear of the Lord; its wages are riches and honor and life.

Background²http://www.easyenglish.info/bible-commentary/proverbs10-22-lbw.htm

The second major section in the Book of Proverbs is Proverbs 10:1, to Proverbs 22:16. This section contains 375 short poems. Most poems have two lines, and each poem is one verse long. Each poem is in itself is a ‘proverb’.
The structure of this section is unusual. Solomon did not separate the proverbs into groups. The proverbs change from one subject to another. However, their order does matter. Solomon uses an ‘organic’ (that is, ‘natural’) order. This order is similar to a conversation. For example, one proverb might explain the previous one. Another proverb might contrast with the previous one.

Together, these proverbs are like a conversation. Imagine Solomon talking to his children about wisdom. His conversation would be similar to this section of the Book of Proverbs. The proverbs describe daily living, often describing both good things and bad things. They do not always explain whether something is good or bad. Here is where you need to use your own wisdom to decide.

Biblical Truths³http://www.christnotes.org/commentary.php?b=20&c=22&com=mhc

1. We should be more careful to do that by which we may get and keep a good name, than to raise or add to great wealth.
2. Divine Providence has so ordered it, that some are rich, and others poor, but all are guilty before God; and at the throne of God’s grace the poor are as welcome as the rich.
3. Through our faith we foresee the evil coming upon sinners, and therefore, look to Jesus Christ as the sure refuge from the storm.
4. Where the fear of God is, there will be humility. And much is to be enjoyed by it; spiritual riches, and eternal life.

Items for Discussion

• What is some of the wisdom that you were given from your parents or grandparents? What are some of their “proverbs” that have been passed down to you?
• What are the sources for today’s wisdom? Which ones are reliable and which ones are not reliable?
• What are the attributes of the person(s) who gives good wisdom?
• What are the attributes of the person(s) who give bad wisdom?
• Where should the next generation of adults and leaders be obtaining their wisdom from?
• What are the risks to society when bad sources of wisdom dominate the foundation of human thinking?

Luke 14:7-14
7 When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: 8 “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. 9 If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. 10 But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests. 11 For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” 12 Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Background⁴http://www.easyenglish.info/bible-commentary/luke1-4-im-lbw.htm

The Gospel of Luke does not mention Luke’s name as the author. But few people doubt that Luke did write this book. Also, he wrote the Book of Acts. He sent both books to the same person called Theophilus (Luke 1:3 and Acts 1:1). Luke was not a Jew. We know this from Colossians 4:11-14. Paul names the three Jews who were with him in Rome. Luke was not one of them but he was with Paul there. All the other writers of the New Testament were Jews. Luke travelled with Paul on some of his journeys. The evidence for this is that, in several places in Acts, Luke uses the words, ‘we’ or ‘us’. Luke was a medical doctor by profession (Colossians 4:14). There is a tradition that he was born in the city called Antioch in Syria.

Luke was not one of the original disciples of Christ. But he studied the accounts of Christ’s life that were available to him. And he talked with those people who had been with Jesus. Some of the detail shows that probably Luke spoke with Mary the mother of Jesus. We do not know whether Luke wrote this book in Israel, Rome, or somewhere else. He probably wrote it sometime between 59 AD and 63 AD.

Luke’s purpose was to write a good and true account of the life of Jesus. This Gospel tells the story of Jesus from the time before he was born. And it ends when Jesus went back to heaven. Luke wanted Theophilus and all people to know the truth about Jesus. The Gospel of Luke tells us about the things that Jesus said. And it tells us about the things that he did. This helps us to understand how God saves people from sin. Luke shows us that Jesus is the Savior of the world. Sin ruins people’s lives. And after death, punishment is certain. People cannot save themselves. But Jesus came to look for and to save those people. Luke shows that Jesus was also a real man as well as the Son of God. Our verses today focus on Jesus teaching us humility.

Bible Truth⁵http://www.christnotes.org/commentary.php?b=42&c=14&com=mhc

Even in the common actions of life, Christ marks what we do, not only in our religious gatherings, but at our tables within our homes. We see in many cases, that a man’s pride will bring him low, and before honor is humility. Our Savior here teaches, that works of charity are better than works of show. But our Lord did not mean that a proud and unbelieving generosity should be rewarded. Christ taught His precept of doing good to the poor and afflicted should be observed with love.

Items for Discussion

• The placement of guests at a table is often a reflection of importance. What other common actions in life can you think of that contrast one’s humility with self-admiration?
• What affect do acts of humility have on those around us?
• Why do you think that God loves humility so much?
• Contrast humility with introversion, shyness, fear – how is it different?

Discussion Challenge

• What are the effects on society if humility is abundant? If these affects are good, how do we learn it and teach it?

• 1
  NIV New International Version Translations
• 2
  http://www.easyenglish.info/bible-commentary/proverbs10-22-lbw.htm
• 3
  http://www.christnotes.org/commentary.php?b=20&c=22&com=mhc
• 4
  http://www.easyenglish.info/bible-commentary/luke1-4-im-lbw.htm
• 5
  http://www.christnotes.org/commentary.php?b=42&c=14&com=mhc

Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928. She grew up in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas. She is an author, poet, historian, songwriter, playwright, dancer, stage and screen producer, director, performer, singer, and civil rights activist. She is best known for her autobiographical books: All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986), The Heart of a Woman (1981), Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas (1976), Gather Together in My Name (1974), and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), which was nominated for the National Book Award. Among her volumes of poetry are A Brave and Startling Truth (Random House, 1995), The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou (1994), Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now (1993), Now Sheba Sings the Song (1987), I Shall Not Be Moved (1990), Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing? (1983), Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well (1975), and Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘fore I Diiie (1971), which was nominated for the Pulitzer prize.

In 1959, at the request of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Maya Angelou became the northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. From 1961 to 1962 she was associate editor of The Arab Observer in Cairo, Egypt, the only English-language news weekly in the Middle East, and from 1964 to 1966 she was feature editor of the African Review in Accra, Ghana. She returned to the U.S. in 1974 and was appointed by Gerald Ford to the Bicentennial Commission and later by Jimmy Carter to the Commission for International Woman of the Year. She accepted a lifetime appointment in 1981 as Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In 1993, Angelou wrote and delivered a poem, “On The Pulse of the Morning,” at the inauguration for President Bill Clinton at his request.

The first black woman director in Hollywood, Angelou has written, produced, directed, and starred in productions for stage, film, and television. In 1971, she wrote the original screenplay and musical score for the film Georgia, Georgia, and was both author and executive producer of a five-part television miniseries “Three Way Choice.” She has also written and produced several prize-winning documentaries, including “Afro-Americans in the Arts,” a PBS special for which she received the Golden Eagle Award. Maya Angelou was twice nominated for a Tony award for acting: once for her Broadway debut in Look Away (1973), and again for her performance in Roots (1977).

“Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.”

“While I know myself as a creation of God, I am also obligated to realize and remember that everyone else and everything else are also God’s creation.”

“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.”

“I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.”

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.”

“If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.”

“Life loves the liver of it.”

“My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return.”

“Nothing will work unless you do.”

“There’s a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth.”

“We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders.”

“We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.”

“Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.”

The holidays brings out the deepest thoughts in so many people. This section of LostPine is dedicated to those who have shared their favorite holiday quotes with us.

“The most vivid memories of Christmas are not of gifts given or received, but of the spirit of love, the special warmth of Christmas worship, and the little habits of the home.”
– Lois Rand

“For somehow not only at Christmas but all the long year through, the joy you give to others is the joy that comes back to you.”
– John Greenleaf Whittier

“Recall it as often as you wish, A happy memory never wears out.
– Libbie Fudim

“If we celebrate the years behind us, they become stepping stones of strength and joy for the years ahead.”
– Unknown

“Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.”
– Norman Vincent Peale

There are many great quotes that are sent to me where the is unknown. This section is dedicated to those anonymous intellects that have provided wisdom without recognition. If you read one of these and can connect them to the , please email the information to Lostpine.

“Somewhere there’s someone who dreams of your smile,
and finds in your presence a life that’s worthwhile.
So when you are lonely remember it’s true:
Somebody somewhere is thinking of you.”

“Measure wealth not by the things you have, but by the things you have for which you would not take money.”

“Experience is what you get when you do not get what you want.”

“There is no failure. Only feedback.”

“Failure is the path of least persistence.”

“He was going to be all that a mortal could be–tomorrow.
No one would be kinder or braver than he–tomorrow.
A friend who was troubled and weary he knew,
Who’d be glad of a lift and who needed it too;
On him he would call and see what he could do–tomorrow.

Each morning he’d stack up the letters he’d write–tomorrow.
And thought of the folks he would fill with delight–tomorrow.
It was too bad, indeed, he was busy today,
and hadn’t a minute to stop on his way,
“More time I will have to give others,” he’d say–tomorrow.

The greatest of workers he would have been–tomorrow.
The world would have known him, had he ever seen–tomorrow.
But the fact is, he died, and he faded from view,
And all that he left here, when living was through,
Was a mountain of things he intended to do…
Tomorrow.”

The Cherokee

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside of me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.”

“One is evil: He is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego. The other is good: He is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith. This same fight is going inside you — and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee simply answered, “The one you feed.”

Found by my father’s bed stand:

RESOLUTIONS

No one ever gets out of this world alive. Resolve, therefore, to maintain a sense of values.

Take care of yourself. Good health is everyone’s major source of wealth. Without it, happiness is virtually impossible.

Resolve to be cheerful and helpful. People will repay in kind.

Avoid zealots. They are generally humorless.

Resolve to listen more and talk less. No one ever learns anything by talking.

Be wary of giving advice. Wise men don’t need it, and fools won’t heed it.

Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and wrong. Sometime in your life you will have been all of these.

Do not equate money with success. The world abounds with big money makers who are miserable failures as human beings. What counts most about success is how a person achieves it.

Ten Rules for Living

1. Prayer is not a “spare wheel” that you pull out when in trouble, but it is a “steering wheel” that directs the right path throughout.

2. So why is a car’s windshield so large and the rear view mirror so small? Because our past is not as important as our future. So, look ahead and move on.

3. Friendship is like a book. It takes few seconds to burn, but it takes years to write.

4. All things in life are temporary. If it’s going well, enjoy it, that won’t last long. If it’s going badly, don’t worry, that won’t last long either.

5. Old friends are gold! New friends are diamond! If you get a diamond, don’t forget the gold! Because to hold a diamond, you always need a base of gold!

6. Often when we lose hope and think this is the end, God smiles from above and says, “Relax, sweetheart, it’s just a bend, not the end!”

7. When God solves your problems, you have faith in His abilities; when God doesn’t solve your problems, He has faith in your abilities.

8. A blind person asked St. Anthony, “Can there be anything worse than losing eye sight?” He replied, “Yes, losing your vision!”

9. When you pray for others, God listens to you and blesses them; sometimes, when you are safe and happy, remember that someone has prayed for you.

10. Worrying does not take away tomorrow’s troubles, it takes away today’s peace .

Anonymous Greek Proverb

Society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.

Meaning of Life

Once a wise man was asked what is the meaning of life?

He replied …..

Life has no meaning,  life is an opportunity to create a meaning.

(8/30/1797 to 2/1/1851) The only daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary met a young poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1812 and eloped with him to France in July of 1814. The couple were married two years later, after Shelley’s first wife had committed suicide. After Percy Shelley’s death in 1822, she returned to England and devoted herself to publicizing Shelley’s writings and to educating their only surviving child, Percy Florence Shelley. She published her late husband’s Posthumous Poems (1824); she also edited his Poetical Works (1839), with long and invaluable notes, and his prose works. Her Journal provides a rich source for Shelley’s biography.

Mary Shelley’s best-known book is Frankenstein (1818, revised on 1831), a text that is part Gothic novel and part philosophical novel. It is also often considered an early example of science fiction documenting the consequences that arise after a scientist artificially creates a human being. She wrote several other novels, including Valperga (1823), The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck (1830), Lodore (1835), and Falkner (1837); and The Last Man (1826), an account of the future destruction of the human race by a plague. The Last Man is often ranked as her best work. She also wrote several travel books based on her personal journeys. Some of Mary’s casual writings and journals were published later in the 20th century by others.

“Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos.”

“It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world.”

“Every political good carried to the extreme must be productive of evil.”

“Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose – a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.”

He was born in Virginia in 1856, the son of a Presbyterian minister who during the Civil War was a pastor in Augusta, Georgia, and during Reconstruction a professor in the charred city of Columbia, South Carolina.

After graduation from Princeton (then the College of New Jersey) and the University of Virginia Law School, Wilson earned his doctorate at Johns Hopkins University and entered upon an academic career. In 1885 he married Ellen Louise Axson. Wilson advanced rapidly as a conservative young professor of political science and became president of Princeton in 1902.

His growing national reputation led some conservative Democrats to consider him Presidential timber. Wilson first ran for Governor of New Jersey in 1910. He was nominated for President at the 1912 Democratic Convention and campaigned on a program called the New Freedom, which stressed individualism and states’ rights. In the three-way election he received only 42 percent of the popular vote but an overwhelming electoral vote.

Wilson is credited with moving through Congress three major pieces of legislation. The first was a lower tariff, the Underwood Act; attached to the measure was a graduated Federal income tax. The passage of the Federal Reserve Act provided the Nation with the more elastic money supply it badly needed. In 1914 antitrust legislation established a Federal Trade Commission to prohibit unfair business practices.

In 1916, another new law prohibited child labor; another limited railroad workers to an eight-hour day. By virtue of this legislation and the slogan “he kept us out of war,” Wilson narrowly won re-election.

But after the election Wilson concluded that America could not remain neutral in the World War. On April 2,1917, he asked Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.

The President, against the warnings of his doctors, had made a national tour to mobilize public sentiment for the treaty of Versailes, containing the covenant of the League of Nations. Exhausted, he suffered a stroke and nearly died. Nursed by his second wife, Edith Bolling Galt, he lived until 1924.

“A man is not as big as his belief in himself; he is as big as the number of persons who believe in him.”

“I would rather lose in a cause that will some day win, than win in a cause that will some day lose.”

“If you want to make enemies, try to change something.”

“One cool judgment is worth a thousand hasty counsels. The thing to do is to supply light and not heat.”

“The American Revolution was a beginning, not a consummation.”

“Uncompromising thought is the luxury of the closeted recluse.”

“We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter’s evening. Some of us let these dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the sunshine and light which comes always to those who hope that their dreams will come true.”

“You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.”

“At every crisis in one’s life, it is absolute salvation to have some sympathetic friend to whom you can think aloud without restraint or misgiving.”

“The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it.”

Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin to unconventional parents – his mother Lady Jane Francesca Wilde (1820-96), was an poet and journalist. Her pen name was Speranza. His father was Sir William Wilde, an Irish antiquarian, gifted writer, and specialist in diseases of the eye and ear. Wilde studied at Portora Royal School, Enniskillen, County Fermanagh (1864-71), Trinity College, Dublin (1871-74) and Magdalen College, Oxford (1874-78). In Oxford, Wilde shocked the faculty and other students with his irreverent attitude towards religion and his eccentric clothes. He collected blue china and peacock’s feathers, and later his velvet knee-breeches drew much attention.

In 1878 Wilde received his B.A. and on the same year he moved to London. His lifestyle and humorous wit made him soon spokesman for Aestheticism, the late 19th century movement in England that advocated art for art’s sake. He worked as art reviewer (1881), lectured in the United States and Canada (1882), and lived in Paris (1883). Between the years 1883 and 1884 he lectured in Britain. From the mid-1880s he was regular contributor for Pall Mall Gazette and Dramatic View. In 1884 Wilde married Constance Lloyd (died 1898). In 1888 he published The Happy Prince and Other Tales, fairy-stories written for his two sons. The Picture of Dorian Gray followed in 1890 and next year he brought out more fairy tales. The marriage ended in 1893. Wilde had met an few years earlier Lord Alfred Douglas (‘Bosie’), an athlete and a poet, who became both the love of the ‘s life and his downfall.

Although married and the father of two children, Wilde’s personal life and years of triumph ended dramatically, when his intimate association with Alfred Douglas led to his trial on charges of homosexuality (then illegal in Britain). He was sentenced two years hard labor for the crime of sodomy. Wilde was first in Wandsworth prison, London, and then Reading Gaol. When he was at last allowed pen and paper after more than 19 months of deprivation, Wilde had became inclined to take opposite views on the potential of humankind toward perfection. During this time he wrote DE PROFUNDIS (1905), a dramatic monologue and autobiography, which was addressed to Alfred Douglas.

After his release in 1897 Wilde lived under the name Sebastian Melmoth in Berneval, near Dieppe, then in Paris. He wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol, revealing his concern for inhumane prison conditions. It is said, that on his death bed Wilde became a Roman Catholic. He died of cerebral meningitis on November 30, 1900, penniless, in a cheap Paris hotel at the age of 46.

“Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.”

“A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.”

“To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.”

“Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.”

“We teach people how to remember, we never teach them how to grow.”

“I am not young enough to know everything.”

“Questions are never indiscreet. Answers sometimes are.”

“There is much to be said in favor of modern journalism. By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, it keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.”

“A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.”

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

“Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”

‘The soul is born old but grows young. That is the comedy of life. And the body is born young and grows old. That is life’s tragedy.”

“There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”

“A man’s very highest moment is, I have no doubt at all, when he kneels in the dust, and beats his breast, and tells all the sins of his life.”

“The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.”

John Wesley (1703-1791) is remembered today as the founder of the Methodist movement. He was converted to Christ at the age of 35. Before his conversion, he had done missionary work among the American Indians as an Anglican minister. He was forced to leave the Anglican Church and spent the rest of his life preaching in the fields and on the streets and wherever he was able to. He was up each morning before 5:00 for prayer and Bible study, and often rode on horseback 15 to 20 miles a day, preaching four or five times daily. During his lifetime, Wesley traveled 250,000 miles, preaching a total of 42,000 sermons. He died at the age of 88 and preached up to the very month in which he died.

“Catch on fire with enthusiasm and people will come for miles to watch you burn.”

“Without faith we cannot be thus saved; for we cannot rightly serve God unless we love him. And we cannot love him unless we know him; neither can we know God unless by faith. Therefore, salvation by faith is only, in other words, the love of God by the knowledge of God; or, the recovery of the image of God, by a true, spiritual acquaintance with him.”

“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”

“Cleanliness is indeed next to godliness.”

“The points we chiefly insisted upon were . . .that orthodoxy, or right opinions, is, at best, but a very slender part of religion, if it can be allowed to be any part of it at all; that neither does religion consist in negatives, in bare harmlessness of any kind; nor merely in externals, in doing good, or using the means of grace, in works of piety (so called) or of charity; that it is nothing short of, or different from, the mind that was in Christ; the image of God stamped upon the heart; inward righteousness, attended with the peace of God; and joy in the Holy Ghost.

“Make all you can. Save all you can. Give all you can.”

“By salvation I mean, not barely, according to the vulgar notion, deliverance from hell, or going to heaven; but a present deliverance from sin, a restoration of the soul to its primitive health, its original purity; a recovery of the divine nature; the renewal of our souls after the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness, in justice, mercy, and truth.”

“The more I converse with this people, the more I am amazed. That God hath wrought a great work among them is manifest; and yet the main of them, believers and unbelievers, are not able to give a rational account of the plainest principles of religion. It is plain, God begins His work at the heart; then the inspiration of the highest giveth understanding.

George Washington was born February 22, 1732. He attained his well-rounded knowledge of literature, sciences, and penmanship through tutors. After Washington’s formal education, he moved to live with another brother, Lawrence, and his family. He began to pick up surveying and attended the College of William and Mary. When his brother, Lawrence, became ill and past away, and his brother’s wife and daughter past away too, Washington ended up with all of the Mount Vernon Estate at age 29. Washington also replaced his brother’s position of Adjutant of the Colony, equivalent to a Mayor of a county changing his life into both a political and military career. George Washington eventually accepted the position of our first president and remained in office for 8 years. In his farewell address to the nation, George Washington expounds on his thoughts on religion and government. The following is an excerpt:

“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity. Religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure–reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”

The entire farewell address can be found here.

Francois Marie Arouet (1694-1776), pen name Voltaire, was born in Paris in 1694. Voltaire’s style, wit, intelligence and sense of justice made him one of France’s greatest writers and philosophers.

He received an excellent education at the Jesuit college but left school at 16 and soon formed friendships with a group of Parisian aristocrats. Paris society sought his company for his cleverness, humor and remarkable ability to write verse. In 1717 he was arrested for writing a series of satirical verses ridiculing the French government, and was imprisoned in the Bastille.

In 1726, Voltaire insulted a powerful a nobleman and was exiled to England. While in England Voltaire was attracted to the philosophy of John Locke and ideas of the great scientist Sir Isaac Newton. He studied England’s Constitutional Monarchy, its religious tolerance, its philosophical rationalism and most important the “natural sciences.” After his return to Paris he wrote a book praising English customs and institutions but the book criticized the French government and Voltaire was forced to flee Paris again.

Voltaire remained an outspoken critic of religious intolerance, slavery and persecution until he returned to a hero’s welcome in Paris at age 83, where he remained until his death in 1776.

“Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice and need.”

“True greatness consists in the use of a powerful understanding to enlighten oneself and others.”

“I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

“Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.”

“I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short on: ‘O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.’ And God granted it.”

“The biggest reward for a thing well done is to have done it.”

“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.”

“The road to the heart is the ear.”

“All men are equal; it is not birth, but virtue alone, that makes the difference.”

“Common sense is not so common.”

“The true character of liberty is independence, maintained by force.”

“In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as
possible from one class of citizens to give to another.”

“If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.”

“Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy; the mad daughter of a wise mother.”