Word
Gems
What is a
man but the sum of his thoughts?
Peace
& Happiness
- "One is happy as a result of one's own efforts, once one
knows the necessary ingredients of happiness -- simple tastes, a certain degree of
courage, self-denial to a point, love of work, and, above all, a clear conscience.
Happiness is no vague dream, of that I now feel certain. By the proper use of experience
and thought one can draw much from oneself, by determination and patience one can even
restore one's health ... so let us live life as it is, and not be ungrateful."
George Sand
- Howard Whitman, Success Is Within You: "The
trouble comes when we try to fashion our success to the outside world's specifications
even though these are not the specifications drawn up in our own hearts... Success, if it
is to be meaningful, must be a personal thing... William Faulker, the Nobel prize
novelist, has said, 'I was born to be a tramp. I was happiest when I
had nothing. I had a trenchcoat then with big pockets. It would carry a pair of
socks, a condensed Shakespeare, and a bottle of whiskey. Then I was happy and I wanted
nothing and I had no responsibility.' One may reject this definition of success. That is,
one may reject it for himself, but he cannot reject it for Faulkner."
- Albert Schweitzer: The kindly doctor ministered to the world's
cast-off underprivileged. On his 80th birthday, in 1955, admirers raised $20,000 to send
him cards, flowers and trinkets in darkest Africa, upon receipt of which the sainted
recluse commented: "How I regret all this fuss. How tired I am."
- Henry David Thoreau: "A man is rich in the proportions of
things he can let alone."
- Dale Carnegie, How To Stop Worrying And Start Living:
He tells the story of a lady with virtually no eyesight: "Then in 1943, when she was
52 years old, a miracle happened: an operation at the famous Mayo Clinic. She could now
see 40 times [better]... A new and exciting world of loveliness opened before her. She now
found it thrilling to even to wash dishes in the kitchen sink. 'I begin to play with the
white fluffy suds in the dishpan... I dip my hands into them and I pick up a ball of tiny
soap... I can see the brilliant colors of a miniature rainbow.' ... You and I ought to be
ashamed of ourselves. All the days of our years we have been living
in a fairyland of beauty, but we have been too blind to see, too satiated to enjoy.
If you want to stop worrying and start living: Count your blessings -- not your
troubles!"
- Albert Camus: “When you have once
seen the glow of happiness on the face of a beloved person, you know that a man can
have no vocation but to awaken that light on the faces surrounding him; and you are torn
by the thought of the unhappiness and night you cast ... in the hearts you encounter."
- Buddha: "Happiness comes when
your work and words are of benefit to yourself and others."
- John Milton: "The mind is its own place, and in itself, can
make heaven of Hell, and a hell of Heaven."
- Margaret Bonnano: "It is only possible to live happily ever
after on a day to day basis."
Hawthorne: "Happiness
is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will
sit down quietly, may alight upon you."
Charlotte
Dresser, Life Here And Hereafter (1927): transcribed by Dresser,
words sent from the Other Side: "I am wishing to tell those on earth, who are
struggling to learn what is the meaning of life, that it is the way one looks at it that
determines its value. If one thinks of it as a time of sensuous enjoyment, one makes his
life a thing of little worth, for such things have no value in the spirit world. If one
looks at life as something to be endured and to be gotten through as soon as possible, he will form a character that has nothing to rest on here. He will have to
create new foundations before he can advance. If one there believes that life
consists in praying and preaching, that spirit is apt to want to pray and preach here; and
in this world there are no churches or congregations to respond as they did there, and the
spirit has to learn that there are other things to acquire before the true life can be
enjoyed. When a soul on earth can realize that there are others
there who need assistance, who will be the better for aid and sympathy, and can learn to
feel that this aid and sympathy can be given by himself, he is on the way to create the
life that will mean the most to him when his mortal life is over."
Frederic W. H. Myers, Vanishing Night,
transmitted to Juliet S. Goodenow, 1923: "It is not so much what you will find when you come to this side
of life as what you will bring with you... Sleep is the best definition of death I know anything about -- just
going to sleep unafraid to awake in a new and beautiful room, and to be satisfied."
-
Mother Teresa of Calcutta: "The Western
world will never know peace as long as they continue to allow
their mothers to kill their own young."
- “I have now reigned about 50 years in victory
or peace, beloved by my subjects, dreaded by my enemies, and respected by my allies.
Riches and honors, power and pleasure, have waited on my call, nor does any earthly
blessing appear to have been wanting to my felicity. In this situation, I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which
have fallen to my lot. They amount to fourteen.”
-
Abd ER-Rahman III of Spain (960)
|