Words of the Wise VII

Without the stories we are nothing
Bryce Courtney

The greatest disease is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread, but there are many more dying for a little love
Mother Teresa

Look around for a place to sow a few seeds
Henry Van Dyke

Not he who has much is rich, but he who gives much
Erich Fromm

Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born
Anais Nin

Charity sees the need, not the cause
German Proverb

A single grateful thought raised to Heaven is the most perfect prayer
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

The love of our neighbour in all its fullness simply means being able to say to him, "What are you going through?"
Simone Weil

We cannot hold a torch to another man's path without brightening our own
Ben Sweetland

For it is in giving that we receive
Saint Francis of Assisi

Where love is, there is God also
Leo Tolstoy

To get to a woman's heart, a man must first use his own
Mike Dobbertin, age 13

Love, true love, is that which can give the most without asking or demanding anything in return
Mazie Hammond

Children are a poor man's riches
English Proverb

The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom
Henry Ward Beecher

Kids spell love T-I-M-E
John Crudele

Nature cannot be tricked or cheated. She will give up to you the object of your struggle only after you have paid her price
Napoleon Hill

Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself
John Dewey

In the darkest hour the soul is replenished and given strength to endure
Heart Warrior Chosa

Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another
George Eliot

What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches
Karl Menninger

Oh, heart, if one should say to you that the soul perishes like the body, answer that the flower withers, but the seed remains. This is the law of God
Kahlil Gibran

I don't think of all the misery, but of all the beauty that still remains
Anne Frank

Miracles do not happen in contradiction with nature, but in contradiction with what we know about nature
Saint Augustine

We want people to feel with us more than to act for us
George Eliot

Perhaps they are not the stars, but rather openings in Heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy
Inspired by an Eskimo legend

Kindness is a language the dumb can speak and the deaf can hear and understand
Christian Nestell Bovee

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so
William Shakespeare

The opportunity to practice brotherhood presents itself every time you meet a human being
Jane Wyman

If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear as it is, infinite
William Blake

The supernatural is the natural not yet understood
Elbert Hubbard

Tragedy and comedy are but two aspects of what is real, and whether we see the tragic or the humorous is a matter of perspective
Arnold Beisser

A man of character finds a special attractiveness in difficulty, since it is only by coming to grips with difficulty that he can realize his potentialities
Charles de Gaulle

All great achievements requires time
David Joseph Schwartz

Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently
Henry Ford

Deferred joys purchased by sacrifice are always the sweetest
Bishop Fulton Sheen

The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it
Epicurus

Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs
Henry Ford

There is no such thing as a self-made man. You will reach your goals only with the help of others
George Shinn

A weed is but an unloved flower
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

We are members of a vast cosmic orchestra in which each living instrument is essential to the complimentary and harmonious playing of the whole
J. Allen Boone

There is nothing the body suffers that the soul may not profit by
George Merideth

God asks no man whether he will accept life. That is not the choice. You must take it. The only question is how
Henry Ward Beecher

Nothing is worth more than this day
Goethe

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stairs
Walt Whitman

Character before wealth
Amos Lawrence

Rather fail by honour than succeed by fraud
Sophocles

Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
the last of life for which the first was made
Robert Browning

Life is eternal, and love is immortal,
and death is only a horizon;
and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight
Rossiter Worthington Raymond

The Golden Rule: Do unto other as you would other do unto you.
Edwin Markham - We have committed the Golden Rule to memory. Now let us commit it to life
Matthew 7:12 - Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophet
Luke 6:31 - And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise
Buddhist - One should seek for others the happiness one desires for one's self
Confucius - What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others
Muslim - Let none of you treat his brother in a way he himself would not like to be treated
Aristotle - We should behave to our friends as we would wish our friends to behave to us
Roman - The law imprinted on the hearts of all men is to love the members of the society as themselves
Rabbi Hillel - What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour. That is the whole Truth
Persian - Do as you would be done by
The Hindu Mahabharata - Deal with others as thine wouldst thyself be dealt by
Plato - Do to others as I would they should do to me

CHICKEN SOUP
A wintry day once found me
home in bed and feeling bad...
sneezing, wheezing, coughing
with the worst cold I'd yet had
I heard my mother's footsteps
and tried to fake a sleep
so she wouldn't try to feed me
when I didn't want to eat.
"I was going to fix some ice cream,
but couldn't find the scoop.
So I guess you'll have to settle
for a bowl of chicken soup."
I sat up. She fluffed the pillows,
put her cool hand on my brow...
then set the tray upon my lap.
"You eat this all up now."
Though my joints were stiff and achy
and my body felt like wood,
I have to say that chicken soup
sure tasted mighty good.
Now that I've grown older,
there's a different sort of pain
When I'm tired and discouraged
and the loss outweighs the gain,
I curl up on the sofa
with a book and not a bowl
and enjoy another helping
of Chicken Soup for the Soul
Karen Taylor