“You have before you unlimited possibilities⎯do not wast a moment in indifference,” pleaded one observer on the subject. “Indifference is not wisdom. More often than not it is...
The problems of our time, whatever they are, are partly our problems. Albert Camus expressed this thought in this significant sentence: “Conscious of the fact that I cannot separate myself...
“Just outside our door is a day waiting. . .,” wrote Celia Caroline Cole, “. . . a free, glorious spirit wanting to come in and give to us its gifts . . . of joy . . . of kindness...
“Many good resolutions seem to die a natural death after a few days,” said James Francis Cooke. “Why? Largely because those who make them do not have the quality of dogged...
“If someone were to ask you to go to a moving picture of things that are going to happen . . . would you go?” asked William Frederick Bigelow. “Would you be willing to risk seeing...
In a strong, short sentence Jean Paul Richter said: “I have made of myself all that could be made of the stuff.”1 The “stuff,” of course, is all that we have and all we are:...
In an essay “On Tranquility of Mind,” Seneca wrote some sentences concerning the disappointment, the discouragement, the sorrows that sometime come to all of us. “No one could...
“Sweet are the uses of adversity . . .” is often cited from Shakespeare, but adversity seems not always sweet or acceptable, as personally applied. It isn’t easy to concede, even...
Times of personal trouble are times of self-searching and often bring out the inner qualities of character. Those who attend sick or sorrowing or deeply disappointed people, often see the qualities...
“The destiny of any nation, at any given time,” said Goethe, “depends on the opinions of its young men under five-and-twenty.” This focuses on the fact that the whole future...
In a writing on the rift between generations, a wise professor had some searching things to say: “There has hardly been a time . . . when students needed more attention and patient listening...
“If one by one we counted people out For the least fault,” wrote Robert Frost, “it wouldn’t take us long to get so we had no one left to live with.” We may well think...
On some days our physical and mental mood makes even serious problems seem solvable, while some days, some nights, may make even lesser problems seem more serious. We change much in our feelings and...
The choices in life are always and endless. Every hour, every instant gives us something to decide — where we go, what we learn, what we do with time, whether we play or work, develop or drift,...
We choose people for certain purposes⎯for friendship, for talents, for business or professional ability, for qualities of character. There are some whose services we never see, and some whose impact...
In the highs and lows of life, the unhappiness and happiness, despair and hope, there is much to make us search ourselves, and much to make us search outside ourselves. We read history; we see its...
We turn at this time to a simple basic subject, “Love at home,” which includes both sentiment and service and something else besides⎯the love of mothers, parents, children, in this most...
Life is a search for all of us. It is a mixture of problems and accomplishment, of disappointment and hope, of fear and faith. There are times when we have a sense of assurance, and times when we...
There is the beauty of it, of the world and its wonders⎯the seasons, the sunset, the majesty of a storm-filled sky; the innocent eyes of a child, the wonderful welcome of loved ones; the awareness...