"If we let the past preside over the present, we stand to lose the future."
- Churchill

 
"The past does not exist except in our memory - nor does the future except in our expectations."
 - David Allan
 

"We transform the resources of the past into the pollution of the future, telescoping our self-indulgence in the present."
- Int'l Herald Tribune

 
"Tomorrow is meaningless unless linked with the past which is TODAY."
- quoted
 

"We must welcome the future, remembering that it will soon be the great past; and we must respect the past, remembering that it was all that was humanly possible."
 - George Santayana

 
"We are shaping the world faster than we ourselves, and we are applying to the present the habits of the past."
 - W. Churchill
 

"The present is the past rolled up for action and the past is the present unrolled for understanding."
 - Will and Ariel Durant
 
 

 
 "If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow."
 - Chinese Proverb
 Patience

 
"Nothing is so full of victory as patience."
 - Chinese Proverb
 

 "Every cloud has a silver lining, so wait until the sun shines through."
 - from the song
 

"There are many difficult problems and decisions that actually improve when left to simmer a little while. The rhythm of life is intricate but tenacious and orderly, though fragile. To keep that in mind is to hold the key to survival."
 - Judge Shirley Hufstedler

 
"Nature thrives on patience; man on impatience."
 - Paul Boise
 

 "Patience is the companion of wisdom."
 - St. Augustine
 
 

"Patriotism depends as much on mutual suffering as on mutual success. It is by that experience of all fortunes and feelings that a great natural character is created."
- Benjamin Disraeli

 
"Nationalism is often the ideology of the downtrodden."
- Gerd Behrens
 

"To die for one's country is an art, but a still greater art is knowing how to live for her."
 - Pope John Paul II

 
"You never appreciate your own country until you leave it."
 - quoted
 
 

 
"Peace of mind can transform a cottage into a spacious manor hall; the want of it can make a regal residence an imprisoning shell."
- Joshua Loth Liebman
 

"Oh God, heap worldly gifts at the feet of foolish men; give me the gift of the untroubled mind!"
 - Marcus Aurelius, Lao Tze

 
"Like the light in a lantern in a wild turmoil of wind and tempest, there is always a radiance in the soul of a man with an untroubled mind."
- Plotious
 
 

"To try when there is little hope is to risk failure; not to try at all is to guarantee it."
- Anonymous

"The country needs bold, persistent experimentation. Take a method and try it, if it fails, admit it and try another. But above all, try something."
- F.D. Roosevelt ;  during the Depression
 

On the lack of it:
"Everything looks impossible for people who never try anything."
- Joan Louis Etienna
 
 

 
"Politics is the most beautiful of all acts that man can cultivate since it involves the totality of his entire being."
 - Imelda Marcos; a Philippine First Lady

 
"Politics have no relation to morals."
 - Machiavelli
 

"A  politician would do well to remember that he has to live with his conscience longer than he does with his constituents."
- Melvyn R. Laird
 

"Just cause and deep concern and noble ends can never be reason enough to justify improper action or excessive means."
- Pres. Ronald Reagan (On the Iran arms deal for the secret assistance to rebels in Nicaragua)
 

"We are not final because we are infallible, but we are infallible only because we are final."
 - Robert Jackson ; U.S. Justice, S.C.
 

 "When a statesman deserts his private conscience for public duty, he leads his country by a short road to chaos."
 - Thomas More  (in answer to the request of Cardinal Wolsey to put aside his private conscience for  the sake of expediency)
 

 "Guarantees of political independence for great and small states alike would be possible only in a general association of nations."
 - Woodrow Wilson, 1918
 
 

 
"Nothing can bring out our weaknesses more than power."
 - Josef Sorvos
 
 

 
"Those who thank God, even in their trials, turn burdens into blessings."
- Anonymous

 
"Worship can never be confined to the walls of the church or temple, for it is an attitude toward life, a response to the universe around us. The essence of worship is wonder."
- Ardis Whitman
 

"Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance. It is taking hold of God's willingness."
- E. Stanley Jones ; Evangelist

 
"Prayer should be the key of the morning and the lock of the night."
- Owen Felithaim
 

What is prayer?
 "Prayer is the contemplation of life from the highest point of view. It is the soliloquy of a beholding and jubilant soul. It is the spirit of God pronouncing his great works. But prayer as a means to effect a private end is meanness and theft. It supposes a dualism and not unity in nature and consciousness."
 - Emerson
 

Prayer for Peace
 "Lead me from death to life, from falsehood to truth! Lead me from despair to hope, from fear to trust! Lead me from hate to love, from war to peace!
Let peace fill our hearts, our world, our universe! Peace, peace, peace.”
 - Mother Teresa

"I asked God for strength that I may achieve...
    ...I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for health that I might do greater things...
   ...I was given infirmity that I might do better things.
I asked for riches that I might be happy...
   ...I was given poverty that I might be wise.
I asked for power that I might have the praise of men...
  ...I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God. I ask for all things that I might enjoy life...
   ...I was given life that I might enjoy all things...
 ... I got nothing that I asked for,  but everything I had hoped for...
... Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered. I am, among all men, most richly blessed."

 
"It's not how long you pray or how much you pray - it's how much you believe."
- quoted

 
Please God, grant me...
   " The spark to imagine...
  ...the daring to innovate...
  ...the discipline to plan...
  ...the skill to do...
  ...the will to achieve...
  ...the commitment to be responsible...
  ...the leadership to motivate."
 - Richard B. Stone
 

Life's Philosophy:
 "God grant me...
    ... the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
   ... the courage to change the things I can,
   ... and the wisdom to know the difference."

- Sister Maria Ignatia ;  Sister of Charity of St. Augustine founder of Rosary Hall Solarium  Cleveland, Ohio
 

"Lord, where we are wrong, make us willing to change; where we are right, make us easy to live with."
 - The Rev. Peter Marshall

 
"When we set ourselves to the work of collecting the scattered pieces of ourselves, we begin a task which, if carried to its natural conclusion, ultimately becomes prayer."
- William Sadler
 
 

"Pride comes before destruction and you're hit hardest before the fall."
 - from Celebrity

 
"Pride is an undue estimation and an inordinate esteem of one's own excellence."
 - Fulton Sheen
 

"I like to see a man proud of the place he lives, a man who lives so that his place will be proud of him."
 - Lincoln

"To a certain extent, advances and human progress comes from being greedy. A limited desire or attachment is helpful for the development of society. With too much contentment, nothing gets done."
 - Dalai Lama
 

 "Growth and progress will ultimately bow down to the inexhaustible law of decline and decay."
 - quoted
 
 

On Public Relations & Publicity:
 "A woman who wears a subtle perfume is using public relations; a woman who wears clothes a size too small is employing publicity. Both are effective."
 - Roy Abrahamson
 
 

 
"What we call "reality" is not much worse than those perceptions that pass through the filters of our conditioning. We see things as we are, not as they are."
  - Leo Rosten

 "Rearing children is like holding a very wet bar of soap, too firm a grip and it shoots from your hand, too loose and it slides away. A gentle but firm grasp keeps it in your control."
 - Ellen Hannagan

 "A child needs your love the most when he deserves it the best."
- Erma Bombeck

 
"The finest inheritance you can give to a child is to allow it to make its own way, completely on its own feet."
- Isadora Duncan ; The Dancer
 
 
"What a father says to his children is not heard by the world, but it will be heard by posterity."
 - Jean Paul Richter

 
"We can't give our children the future, strive though we may make it secure. But we can give them the present."
- Kathleen Norris
 

"The best combination of parents consists of a father who is gentle beneath his firmness, and a mother who is firm beneath her gentleness."
- Lily Pons
 

 "A child inspires in me two sentiments: tenderness for what he is and respect for what he may become."
 - Louis Pasteur

 
"If you can give your son nothing else but one gift, let it be enthusiasm."
 - Old Italian Proverb
 

"Your children need your presence more than your presents."
 - Rev. Jesse Jackson

 
 "The footsteps a child follows are most likely the ones his parents thought they had covered up."
 - quoted
 
 

 
"To be true to yourself and you cannot be false to any man."
- Shakespeare
 
 

 
"Nations are renewed from the bottom, not from the top; the genius which springs up from the ranks of unknown men is the genius which renews the youth and the energy of the people."
- Wilson
 
 

 
"Marriage should be a duet - when one sings, the other one claps."
 - Joe Murray
 
 

"Religion is the best armor that man have, but it is the worst cloak."
- Bunyan

 
"The best reply to an atheist is to give him a good dinner and ask him if he believes there is a cook."
 - Louis Nizer
 

"Many go to church to bring their clothes rather than themselves."
- Proverb

 
"The theological problem today is to find the art of drawing religion out of a man, not of pumping it into him."
 - Rev. Karl Rahner
 
 

 
"Learn to pause or nothing worthwhile can catch up with you."
 - quoted
 
 

"They have rights who dare defend them."
 - Roger Baldwin