Seeds of Kindness  . . . . . Apples of Gold, p. 26

     “Keep ascending the mountain of cheerfulness by daily scattering seeds of kindness along the way as best you can, and, should mists hide the mountaintop, continue undaunted and you will reach the sun-tipped heights in your own life-experience.”

Potential for Greatness  . . . . . J. Carl Humphrey, Insight, #66, p. 23

 “The potential for greatness lies within each of us, It is, simply, our best! A person who can peacefully lay one’s head upon one’s pillow of rest each night, thankful to God for the blessings of the day, secure in the knowledge that he or she has given one’s best to all he or she has done, is great.”

Lesson From Sherlock Holmes  . . . . . Mark Link, SJ

“Sherlock Holmes once told Dr. Watson, ‘You see, but don’t observe.’
Could this be true of us also?”

Another Sort of Learning  . . . . . James Schall, p. 34
                                                        Aristotle, The Ethics

     “We ought not listen to those who counsel us ‘O man, think as man should’ and ‘O mortal, remember your mortality.’ Rather ought we, so far as in us lies, to put on immortality and to leave nothing unattempted in the effort to live in conformity with the highest thing within us. Small in bulk it may be, yet in power and preciousness it transcends all the rest.”

A Good Example  . . . . . Bits & Pieces, Aug ‘88, p. 15

     “One of the hardest lessons to learn in life is to stand up and cheer when the other fellow succeeds and really mean it. Mark Twain once observed: ‘Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.’”

Leap Before Look  . . . . . Bits & Pieces, Sept. ‘88, p.6

     “Unfortunately, many people have a tendency to act before they think, to leap before they look, to try to solve problems before they really know what those problems are.
     Simple as it may seem, the first step when confronted with a problem is to find out what is causing it.
     Unless a careful analysis is made of the cause of a problem, it’s easy to chase around in circles without accomplishing anything …
     Once you are sure you know the cause, then you are ready for the second step: finding a solution.”

Chief Interest of All  . . . . . Dr. Albert Einstein

     “Concern for man himself and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors, concern for the great unsolved problems of the organization of labor and the distribution of goods — in order that the creations of our mind shall be a blessing and not a curse to mankind. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.”

Spiritual Reading  . . . . . Weavings, Sept.-Oct. ‘88

    “Spiritual reading is the discipline through which we enter the company of the saints in order to glean their wisdom and to receive their guidance toward spiritual maturity. Yet spiritual reading of scripture or other texts does not follow the ‘strip-mining method’ we so often apply to written material. The aim in spiritual reading is not to scour the pages for valuable nuggets of insight with which we can turn a spiritual profit. Rather, spiritual reading is a form of dwelling in the words, listening attentively for what God is saying to us in the unique circumstances of our life.”

What’s Most Important  . . . . . Humphrey Bogart

“To be good is more important than to be rich.
To be kind is more important than owning a house or a car.
To respect one’s work and to do it well,
to risk something in life, is more important than being a star.
To never sell your soul – to have self-esteem – to be true –
is most important of all.”

A Mother’s Prayer  . . . . . Anonymous

     “Please let me keep on going, Lord, from dawn to the setting sun, ‘til I’m no longer needed and all my work is done.
     Please let me be around to see my little ones grow strong. And keep my shoulder handy for their tears when things go wrong.
     Please let me make our home a place they’re happy to be in — and help me be an example to keep them free from sin.n
     For not until they’re all prepared to face life’s rocky road does any mother dare to drop her burden and her load.
     It’s only then that she can feel she’s truly earned her rest, as thankfully she whispers,
‘Lord, I’ve done my very best!’”

Courage of Confidence  . . . . . Mickey Mantle

     Ted Williams had a lot of guts. When he hit .406 in 1941 he came into the last day of the season with 179 hits in 448 official at bats; that’s an average of just under .400 — or .3955, to be exact. In baseball, if your average is more than halfway between two figures — and Ted’s was more than halfway between .399 and .400 — you’re given the higher figure. So Ted was listed at .400 and that’s the way it would have gone into the record books, too. His manager suggested that Ted sit out the doubleheader scheduled for the last day of the season to ensure that his average stayed at .400. It was a rare feat to hit .400 (it hadn’t been done for eleven years before that…), and he was told not to take the chance of having a bad day and dropping his average a few points.
     But Williams said, “If I’m going to be the batting champion, I’m going to win it like a champion.” He played both games of the doubleheader, and got six hits in eight times at bat to lift his average six points on the last day of the regular season to .406. That took the courage of confidence.

Earl Nightingale’s Greatest Discovery  . . . . . p. 59

     A college president, as he walked toward the podium, overheard a senior saying to another, “Thank God it’s over, I’ll never open another book as long as I live!”
     The college president said those were the saddest words he had ever heard.

Remember the Mountain!  . . . . . Sunday Sermon Masterpiece Collection, p. 1153

     A father and his teenage son were frequently at odds with one another over those things that fathers and sons often disagree: homework, curfews, friends, the family car, and so on. It seemed that the two could hardly say anything to each other without getting into a shouting match. Finally, the father proposed that they go on a camping trip — just the two of them … The young man agreed.
     For a week, father and son together forded swift streams, climbed over huge boulders, trampled through thick brush, slept under starlit skies — and talked, talked, talked. They began to understand each other as never before. They began to see each other, not just in their usual roles of domineering father and rebellious son, but as genuine human persons, each with his own individual hopes and fears and loves. The trip up the mountain became a turning-point in each of their lives.
     In the years that followed, they continued to disagree on many things, but on different terms. When a problem loomed, one or the other would ask, “Remember the mountain?” An ordinary mountain became their glory mountain. What began as an ordinary camping trip was transformed into a mountain top experience.