Category: Wisdom (Page 6 of 13)

John Newton (1725-1807) was born in London on July 24, 1725 and died December 21, 1807. At the age eleven, he went to sea with his father, a shipmaster on the Mediterranean. Disregarding his mother’s desire that he enter the ministry, Newton engaged in the lucrative but brutal African slave trade for a number of years. After his conversion to Christianity, he served in the Church of England as pastor of Olney parish and later of the combined church of St. Mary’s in London. In addition to the words of “Amazing Grace,” Newton was a prolific songwriter whose other well-known hymns include “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken” and “How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds.”

“I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am”

“Although my memory’s fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.”

“We can easily manage if we will only take, each day, the burden appointed to it. But the load will be too heavy for us if we carry yesterday’s burden over again today, and then add the burden of the morrow before we are required to bear it.”

“But that we are so totally depraved, is a truth which no one ever truly learned by being only told it.”

“I wish you may profit by my experience. Alas, how much time have I lost and wasted, which, had I been wise—I would have devoted to reading and studying the Bible! But my evil heart obstructs the dictates of my judgment, I often feel a reluctance to read this book of books, and a disposition to hew out broken cisterns which afford me no water, while the fountain of living waters are close within my reach!”

“The wisdom that is from above, is not only pure, but also peaceable and gentle; and the lack of these qualifications, like the dead fly in the jar of ointment, will spoil the fragrance and efficacy of our labors. If we act in a wrong spirit—we shall bring little glory to God; do little good to our fellow creatures; and procure neither honor nor comfort to ourselves! If you can be content with showing your wit, and gaining the laugh on your side—you have an easy task!”

Isaac Newton (1642-1727) was born in Woolsthorpe, England. Newton may very well be the most influential scientist who ever lived. His accomplishments in mathematics, optics, and physics laid the foundations for modern science and revolutionized the world.

Newton was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge where he lived from 1661 to 1696. During this period he produced the bulk of his work on mathematics. In 1696 he was appointed Master of the Royal Mint, and moved to London, where he resided until his death.

As mathematician, Newton invented integral calculus, and jointly with Leibnitz, differential calculus. Newton made a huge impact on theoretical astronomy. He defined the laws of motion and universal gravitation which he used to predict precisely the motions of stars, and the planets around the sun. Using his discoveries in optics Newton constructed the first reflecting telescope.

Newton died in London on March 20, 1727 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, the first scientist to be accorded this honor.

“By always thinking unto them. I keep the subject constantly before me and wait till the first dawnings open little by little into the full light.”

“If I have seen further than you, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.”

“I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”

“This most beautiful system [The Universe] could only proceed from the dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.”

“If I have made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention than to any other talent.”

“A man may imagine things that are false, but he can only understand things that are true, for if the things be false, the apprehension of them is not understanding.”

“We build too many walls and not enough bridges.”

Mother Teresa, whose original name was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, was born on August 26, 1910 in what is now Skopje, Macedonia. She always wrote her birthday as the 27th of August because that was the day of her baptism, which was always more important to her than her birth. For her work with the poor around the world she received the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1928 she joined a religious order and took the name Teresa. The order immediately sent her to India. A few years later, she began teaching in Calcutta, and in 1948 the Catholic Church granted her permission to leave her convent and work among the city’s poor people. She became an Indian citizen that same year. In 1950, she founded a religious order in Calcutta called the Missionaries of Charity. The order provides food for the needy and operates hospitals, schools, orphanages, youth centers, and shelters for lepers and the dying poor. It now has branches in 50 Indian cities and 30 other countries.

In addition to the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize, Mother Teresa has received other awards for her work with the needy. These awards include the 1971 Pope John XXIII Peace Prize and India’s Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in 1972. Mother Teresa died on September 5, 1997. She is sorely missed.

“Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. Life is beauty, admire it. Life is bliss, taste it. Life is a dream, realize it. Life is a challenge, meet it. Life is a duty, complete it. Life is a game, play it. Life is a promise, fulfill it. Life is sorrow, overcome it. Life is a song, sing it. Life is a struggle, accept it. Life is a tragedy, confront it. Life is an adventure, dare it. Life is luck, make it. Life is too precious, do not destroy it. Life is life, fight for it.”

“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.”

“I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish that He didn’t trust me so much.”

“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”

“Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand.”

“The miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it.”

(1474-1564) Considered to be one of the greatest artists of all time, Michelangelo Buonarroti created sculptures and paintings of gigantic proportions in terms of scale and importance. His sculpture of David and his covering of the ceiling of Sistine Chapel in the Vatican forever placed him among the greatest artists of all time. Born in the small Italian village of Caprese near Florence on March 6, 1475, Michelangelo was a younger contemporary of such people as the explorer Christopher Columbus and great artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci. His time was of a new age of enlightenment where artistic and inventive freedom was beginning to come back into the forefront.

Some of Michelangelo’s greatest achievement parallel important developments in his life. His sense of local patriotism inspired one of his grandest and most noted works, the gigantic statue of David which he carved between 1501 and 1504. It was done to inspire the people of Florence who were at the time, facing adversity from outside threats to the city. The Biblical character of David was a symbol to the people of the weak with God’s help fighting the Goliath-like forces who were threatening the city. One of Michelangelo’s other greatest achievements was that of painting the ceiling of a small, otherwise insignificant chapel on one end of the Vatican. The massiveness of this panoramic vision of the Biblical history of the ages was perhaps the grandest of all great artistic works.

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free”

“Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I can accomplish.”

“The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.”

“I am still learning.”

Margaret Mead (1901-1978) taught generations of Americans about the value of looking carefully and openly at other cultures to better understand the complexities of being human. Scientist, explorer, writer, and teacher, Mead, who worked in the Department of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History from 1926 until her death, brought the serious work of anthropology into the public consciousness.

Mead studied at Barnard College, where she met the great anthropologist Franz Boas, who became her mentor and her advisor when she attended graduate school at Columbia University. She was twenty-three years old when she first traveled to the South Pacific, to conduct research for her doctoral dissertation. The resulting book, Coming of Age in Samoa, was — and remains — a best-seller. She continued her research throughout her life in such locations as New Guinea, Samoa, Bali, and many other places, including contemporary North America. Mead’s work is largely responsible for the treasures on view in the Museum’s Hall of Pacific Peoples.

In addition to her work at the Museum, Margaret Mead taught, wrote more best-selling books, contributed a regular column to Redbook magazine, lectured, and was frequently interviewed on radio and television. A deeply committed activist, Mead often testified on social issues before the United States Congress and other government agencies. She hoped that through all of these efforts others would learn about themselves and work toward a more humane and socially responsible society. As she once said, “I have spent most of my life studying the lives of other peoples — faraway peoples — so that Americans might better understand themselves.”

Years ago, anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture. The student expected Mead to talk about fishhooks or clay pots or grinding stones.

“But no.” Mead said, “The first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed.” Mead explained, “In the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal.

A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts.” Mead said.

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“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

“Prayer does not use up artificial energy, doesn’t burn up any fossil fuel, doesn’t pollute. Neither does song, neither does love, neither does the dance.

“We are now at a point where we must educate our children in what no one knew yesterday and prepare our schools for what no one knows yet.”

“A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

“Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.”

“Having two bathrooms ruined the capacity to co-operate.”

“I learned the value of hard work by working hard.”

“I must admit that I personally measure success in terms of the contributions an individual makes to her or his fellow human beings.”

“I was wise enough to never grow up while fooling most people into believing I had.”

“Instead of being presented with stereotypes by age, sex, color, class, or religion, children must have the opportunity to learn that within each range, some people are loathsome and some are delightful.”

“It is utterly false and cruelly arbitrary to put all the play and learning into childhood, all the work into middle age, and all the regrets into old age.”

“It may be necessary temporarily to accept a lesser evil, but one must never label a necessary evil as good.”

“Life in the twentieth century is like a parachute jump: you have to get it right the first time.”

“Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have.”

“Sooner or later I’m going to die, but I’m not going to retire.”

“We have nowhere else to go… this is all we have.”

“What people say, what people do, and what they say they do are entirely different things.”

Designated in the eighth century a small territory around Bruges; Flanders became the name of the country bounded by the North Sea, the Scheldt, and the Canche; in the fifteenth century it was even used by the Italians and the Spaniards as the synonym for the Low Countries; to-day Flanders belongs for the most part to Belgium, comprising the provinces of East Flanders and West Flanders. A part of it, known as French Flanders, has gone to France, and another small portion to Holland.

In Flanders Fields is the name of an American War Cemetery in Flanders. This burial place, near the village of Waregem, has taken its name from McCrae’s poem. The bronze foot of the flag-staff is decorated with daisies and poppies. It is ancient battleground. For centuries the fields of Flanders have been soaked with blood.

John McCrae’s poem may be the most famous one of the Great War. Although he had been a doctor for years and had served in the South African War, it was impossible to get used to the suffering, the screams, and the blood here, and Major John McCrae had seen and heard enough in his dressing station to last him a lifetime.

It had been an ordeal that he had hardly thought possible. McCrae later wrote of it: “I wish I could embody on paper some of the varied sensations of that seventeen days… Seventeen days of Hades! At the end of the first day if anyone had told us we had to spend seventeen days there, we would have folded our hands and said it could not have been done.”

One death particularly affected McCrae. A young friend and former student, Lieut. Alexis Helmer of Ottawa, had been killed by a shell burst on 2 May 1915. Lieutenant Helmer was buried later that night in the little cemetery outside McCrae’s dressing station, and McCrae had performed the funeral ceremony in the absence of the chaplain. This had happened in complete darkness, as for security reasons it was forbidden to make light.

The next day, sitting on the back of an ambulance parked near the dressing station beside the Yser Canal, just a few hundred yards north of Ypres, McCrae vented his anguish by composing a poem. In the nearby cemetery (called ‘Essex Farm’), McCrae could see the wild poppies that sprang up from the ditches and the graves, and he spent twenty minutes of precious rest time scribbling fifteen lines of verse in a notebook.

In fact, it was very nearly not published. Dissatisfied with it, McCrae tossed the poem away, but a fellow officer retrieved it and sent it to newspapers in England. The Spectator, in London, rejected it, but Punch published it on 8 December 1915. The basis for the poppies sold by American veterans each Memorial Day is McCrae’s poem.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was born in London, England on the 29th of May, 1874. He was actually a prolific and gifted writer in virtually every area of literature. Chesterton was a man of strong opinions and enormously talented at defending them. However, his exuberant personality nevertheless allowed him to maintain warm friendships with people such as George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells, even with whom he vehemently disagreed.

Chesterton had no difficulty standing up for what he believed. Though not written for a scholarly audience, his biographies of s and historical figures like Charles Dickens and St. Francis of Assisi often contain brilliant insights into their subjects. His politics expounded his deep distrust of concentrated wealth and power of any sort. A newspaper article by him is credited with provoking Gandhi to seek a “genuine” nationalism for India. In Christianity he found the answers to the dilemmas and paradoxes he saw in life.

Chesterton died on the 14th of June, 1936 in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. During his life he published 69 books and at least another ten have been published after his death. Many of those books are still in print.

“A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.”

“I believe in getting into hot water. I think it keeps you clean.”

“I’ve searched all the parks in all the cities and found no statues of committees.”

“Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance.”

“Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.”

“An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered; an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered.”

“What embitters the world is not excess of criticism, but an absence of self-criticism.”

“Customs are generally unselfish. Habits are nearly always selfish.”

“To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.”

“Do not look at the faces in the illustrated papers. Look at the faces in the street.”

“War is not ‘the best way of settling differences; it is the only way of preventing their being settled for you.”

“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.”

“Once abolish the God, and the government becomes the God.”

“Love means loving the unlovable – or it is no virtue at all.”

“The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.”

“It’s not that we don’t have enough scoundrels to curse; it’s that we don’t have enough good men to curse them.”

“The world will very soon be divided, unless I am mistaken, into those who still go on explaining our success, and those somewhat more intelligent who are trying to explain our failure.”

Martin Luther was born in Eisleben in 1483, the son of a rural mining family. He attended the Latin School in Mansfeld from 1488 onwards, continuing his schooling in Magdeburg and later in Eisenach. In 1501 Luther began his studies in Erfurt and intended to become a lawyer.
In 1505, however, he made a decision that changed the course of his life radically: he decided to enter the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt. This decision shaped the rest of his life, and his search for a merciful God and God’s Will culminated in the development of the Reformation of the Church. Luther’s negative personal experiences with the ecclesiastical means of grace resulted in not only increasing criticism of the deplorable state of affairs within the church at that time but above all to a fundamental reconsideration of medieval theology.

His public criticism of the misuse of letters of indulgence in 1517 did not result in the desired discussion but led to the start of a court of inquisition culminating in Luther’s excommunication. Friedrich the Wise organized a “kidnapping” to protect Martin Luther’s life. Luther spent almost a year as Knight George on the Wartburg, where he translated the new testament into German.

Luther’s most obvious break with his monk’s vows ensued when he married the former nun Katharina von Bora in June 1525. The basic unit of the protestant parish house had been born. After the Peasants’ War in 1525, which Luther had disapproved of, the Reformer promoted the development of the protestant territorial church through visitations and church policies.

He died in Eisleben, the town of his birth, in February 1546. By order of the Elector, Luther was buried in the Castle Church in Wittenberg. Martin Luther is recognized by many as one of the principle figures in the Reformation of the Christian Church. His insight, his legacy lives on in the many tenants of the Reformed Faith addressed by his work. The brief writing below is Martin Luther’s description of “faith.” You can find more of his work at the following link.

“Faith is not what some people think it is. Their human dream is a delusion. Because they observe that faith is not followed by good works or a better life, they fall into error, even though they speak and hear much about faith. “Faith is not enough,” they say, “You must do good works, you must be pious to be saved.” They think that, when you hear the gospel, you start working, creating by your own strength a thankful heart which says, “I believe.” That is what they think true faith is. But, because this is a human idea, a dream, the heart never learns anything from it, so it does nothing and reform doesn’t come from this `faith,’ either.

Instead, faith is God’s work in us, that changes us and gives new birth from God. (John 1:13). It kills the Old Adam and makes us completely different people. It changes our hearts, our spirits, our thoughts and all our powers. It brings the Holy Spirit with it. Yes, it is a living, creative, active and powerful thing, this faith. Faith cannot help doing good works constantly. It doesn’t stop to ask if good works ought to be done, but before anyone asks, it already has done them and continues to do them without ceasing. Anyone who does not do good works in this manner is an unbeliever. He stumbles around and looks for faith and good works, even though he does not know what faith or good works are. Yet he gossips and chatters about faith and good works with many words.

Faith is a living, bold trust in God’s grace, so certain of God’s favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it. Such confidence and knowledge of God’s grace makes you happy, joyful and bold in your relationship to God and all creatures. The Holy Spirit makes this happen through faith. Because of it, you freely, willingly and joyfully do good to everyone, serve everyone, suffer all kinds of things, love and praise the God who has shown you such grace. Thus, it is just as impossible to separate faith and works as it is to separate heat and light from fire! Therefore, watch out for your own false ideas and guard against good-for-nothing gossips, who think they’re smart enough to define faith and works, but really are the greatest of fools. Ask God to work faith in you, or you will remain forever without faith, no matter what you wish, say or can do.”

“How soon not now becomes never.”

“Superstition, idolatry, and hypocrisy have ample wages, but truth goes a-begging.”

“The fewer the words, the better the prayer.”

“The will is a beast of burden. If God mounts it, it wishes and goes as God wills; if Satan mounts it, it wishes and goes as Satan wills; Nor can it choose its rider… the riders contend for its possession.”

“Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying.”

“In our sad condition our only consolation is the expectancy of another life. Here below all is incomprehensible.”

“Justice is a temporary thing that must at last come to an end; but the conscience is eternal and will never die.”

Vincent Thomas Lombardi was born on June 11, 1913 in Brooklyn, New York, one of five children. He was raised in the Catholic faith and studied the priesthood for two years before transferring to St. Francis Preparatory High School, where he was a star fullback on the football team. Lombardi was accepted at New York City’s Fordham University in 1933. After a year on the freshman team, Lombardi became a defensive guard known as the “Seven Blocks of Granite.” He graduated magna cum laude with a business major in 1937.

Vince Lombardi worked at a finance company, took night classes at Fordham’s law school and played semi-pro football with Delaware’s Wilmington Clippers. In 1939 he took a teaching and coaching job at St. Cecilia High School in Englewood, New Jersey. Hence began one of the most successful coaching careers in history.

Lombardi is best known for his acceptance of a five-year contract in Wisconsin as the general manager and head coach of perpetual losers the Green Bay Packers. Vince Lombardi expected obedience, dedication and 110% effort from each man, but he also made a promise to them: if they obeyed his rules and used his method, they would be a championship team. Three years later, on December 31, 1961, the Packers defeated the New York Giants 37-0 for the National Football League championship.

In 1967, after nine phenomenal winning seasons with the Packers, Vince Lombardi retired. The Packers had dominated professional football under his direction, collecting six division titles, five NFL championships, two Super Bowls (I and II) and acquiring a record of 98-30-4. After less than a year, however, he realized that he still wanted to coach, accepting the head coaching position for the Washington Redskins in 1969.

In January of 1970, his professional coaching record stood at a remarkable 105-35-6, unmarred by a losing season, and the NFL named him their acclaimed “1960s Man of the Decade.” He was diagnosed with intestinal cancer and died on September 3, 1970. The Super Bowl trophy named in his honor.

“The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.”

“It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.”

“We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.”

“Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.”

“Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster man. But sooner or later the man who wins, is the man who thinks he can.”

“Leaders aren’t born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that’s the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal.”

“Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.”

“Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.”

“The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must pay for success. I think you can accomplish anything if you’re willing to pay the price.”

“Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”

“Inches make champions.”

“If it doesn’t matter who wins or loses, then why do they keep score?”

“If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.”

“The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.”

“Fatigue makes cowards of us all.”

“Winners never quit and quitters never win.”

John Locke (1632-1704) completed a philosophical education at Oxford. Locke declined the offer of a permanent academic position in order to avoid committing himself to a religious order. Having also studied medicine, he served for many years as private physician. A friend of Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle, Locke was also an early member of the Royal Society. He studied and wrote on philosophical, scientific, and political matters throughout his life, in a voluminous correspondence and ample journals.

The fundamental principles of Locke’s philosophy are presented in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), the culmination of twenty years of reflection on the origins of human knowledge. According to Locke, what we know is always properly understood as the relation between ideas, and he devoted much of the Essay to an extended argument that all of our ideas, simple or complex, are ultimately derived from experience. The consequence of this empiricist approach is that the knowledge of which we are capable is severely limited in its scope and certainty.

Locke held that we have no grounds for complaint about the limitations of our knowledge, since a proper application of our cognitive capacities is enough to guide our action in the practical conduct of life. Further, Locke viewed that all rights begin in the individual property interest created by an investment of labor. The social structure or commonwealth, then, depends for its formation and maintenance on the express consent of those who are governed by its political powers. Majority rule thus becomes the cornerstone of all political order, and dissatisfied citizens reserve a lasting right to revolution. Locke also argued for acceptance of alternative religious convictions.

“An excellent man, like precious metal, is in every way invariable; A villain, like the beams of a balance, is always varying, upwards and downwards.”

“As people are walking all the time, in the same spot, a path appears.”

“What worries you, masters you.”

“Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company and reflection must finish him.”

“I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.”

“If we will disbelieve everything, because we cannot certainly know all things, we shall do much what as wisely as he who would not use his legs, but sit still and perish, because he had no wings to fly.”

“Parents wonder why the streams are bitter, when they themselves have poisoned the fountain.”

“New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.”

“Our incomes are like our shoes; if too small, they gall and pinch us; but if too large, they cause us to stumble and to trip.”

“Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.”

“The discipline of desire is the background of character.”

“There is frequently more to be learned from the unexpected questions of a child than the discourses of men, who talk in a road, according to the notions they have borrowed and the prejudices of their education.”

“This tendency to cruelty should be watched in them children, and if they incline to any such cruelty, they should be taught the contrary usage. For the custom of tormenting and killing other animals will, by degrees, harden their hearts even towards men… And they, who delight in the suffering and destruction of inferior creatures, will not be apt to be very compassionate or benign to those of their own kind. Children should from the beginning be brought up in an abhorrence of killing or tormenting living beings… And indeed, I think people from their cradles should be tender to all sensible creatures… All the entertainment and talk of History is of nothing but fighting and killing; and the honor and renown that is bestowed on conquerors, who, for the most part, are but the great butchers of mankind, further mislead youth.”