Gems of Thought

Gems of Thoughts A compilation by: Antonio G. Paulin

Understanding

"It is not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves."

- Henry David Thoreau

Understanding Nature

"There is in wildness a natural wisdom that shapes all the earth's experiments with life."

- Charles Lindbergh

"Nature to be commanded must first be obeyed."
- Francis Bacon

"A certain kind of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with the wind."
- John Neal, Winston Churchill

"The earth may be borrowed but not bought. It may be used but not owned... We are tenants and not possessors, lovers and not masters."
- Marjorie K. Rawlings

"We cannot direct the winds but we can adjust our sails to them."
- Old Proverb

"Rainbows apologize for angry skies."
- Sylvia A. Voiral

"To see the world in a grain of sand is to hold infinity in the palm of your hand."
- William Blake

"To see heaven in a wildflower is to hold infinity in the palm of your hand."

-William Blake

Vengeance

"Vengeance never evens the score. It ties both the injured and the injurer to an endless escalator of retaliation."

- Lewis B. Swedes

Violence

Based on three or four thousand years of civilization, the Chinese have a story:

"Two Chinese coolies were arguing in the midst of a crowd. A stranger expressed surprise that no blows were being struck. His Chinese friend replied, "The man who strikes first admits that his ideas have given out." "

- F. D. Roosevelt

"Guns don't kill people; it's people who kill people."

- from the movie "The Renegade"

"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."
- Isaac Asimov

Virtue

On prudence:

"A prudent man is like a pin; his head prevents him from going too far."

- Morris Mandel

"Female virtue is like a tender and delicate flower. Let the breath of suspicion rest upon it and it withers and perhaps perish forever."
- Andrews Jackson

"Inspite of everything, I still believe that people are good at heart."
- Anne Frank in her diary

"A good man is like a candle: burning itself to give life to others."
- Chinese Proverb

"There is no ornament like virtue...
there is no misery like worry...
there is no protection like patience...
there is no friend equal to generosity."
- Elegant Sayings

       "Loving means to love the unlovable...
       Forgiving means to pardon the unpardonable...
       Faith means believing the unbelievable...
           ... or else these are no virtues at all."
- G.K. Chesterton

"Selfishness is a gift of nature; unselfishness is an accomplishment."
- Joseph Mayer

"Do not hate a man for his vices; hate a man who has no virtue."
- Manuel Quezon ; a Filipino President
Virtues

Three precious things:
"Gentleness - be gentle and you can be bold...
Frugality - be frugal and you can be liberal...
Humility - avoid putting yourself before others...
... and you can be a leader among men."
- Lao Tze

"A peaceful man does more good than a learned one."
- Pope John XXIII

"To be patient shows intelligence; to overlook faults is a man's glory."
- Proverbs 19:11

"One's treasure is not in gold or jade but in honesty and integrity."
- quoted

War

The tragedy of war is that it uses man's best to do man's worst."

- Harry E. Fosdick

"In war there are no unwounded soldiers."
- Jose Narosky

War & Peace

"The soldier of war is also the guardian of peace."

- from "The 5th Day of Peace"

"We can discuss our differences in a climate of warm peace, not cold war."
- U.S.Pres. Clinton in summit with Russian Pres. Yeltsin last September 27, 1994

Weakness

"Two things indicate weaknesses: to be silent when it is proper to speak and to speak when it is proper to be silent."

- Persian Proverb

Wealth

"Wealth consists not in having great possessions but in having few wants."

- Goethe

"Wealth is as love in that it destroys him who withholds it but grants life to him who freely gives it."
- Khalil Gibran

"The ones who possess much are relatively few and those who possess too little are so many."
- Pope John Paul II

"The real measure of a man's wealth is how much he would be worth if lost all his money."
- quoted

Between the rich & the poor:
"The setting sun us reflected from the windows of the almshouse as brightly as from the rich man's abode."
- Thoreau

Wealth & Poverty

"Israel cannot remain an island of prosperity in a sea of poverty. The richer the Palestinians are the better neighbors we will have. The roots of violence are in poverty, discrimination and loss of hope."

- Shimon Peres ; Israeli Prime Minister after peace talk with Palestines

Wisdom

"Still there are imponderables against which wisdom cannot cope and must fail."

- AGP

"The wiser a man becomes, the less he gets involved."
- AGP

"Wisdom is the exercise of judgment, acting on experience, common sense and available information."
- Barbara Tuchmann in "March of Folly"

"Wisdom is knowing when you cannot be wise."
- Fred Engle

"It is time we steer by the star, not by the lights of every passing ship."
- Gen. Omar Bradley

"He who truly knows has no occasion to shout."
- Leonardo da Vinci

"No tree bears fruits for its own use."
- Martin Luther

"Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences."
- Norman Cousins

"If you realize that you are not as wise today as you thought you were yesterday, you are wiser today!"
- quoted

"The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook."
- William James

Wisdom in 4 words...
..."In God we trust." ..."This, too, shall pass."
..."Still waters run deep." ...”Bad news travel fast."
..."Man proposes, God disposes."..."Let sleeping dogs lie."
..."Nothing succeeds like success."..."Charity begins at home."
...”Love laughs at locksmiths."
..."Politics make strange bedfellows."
..."Nothing ventured, nothing gained."
The moral: If you can't say it in 4 words, don't say it."
- Sam Marx, Hollywood Producer

Words

"If it takes a lot of words to say what you have in mind, give it a second thought."

- Dennis Roth

Another form of wastefulness is expenditure of words beyond income of ideas."
- H. F. Henriche

"The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do."
- Thomas Jefferson

Words of Wisdom

“I would rather feel compunction than know its definition”...

“It is vanity to wish for a long life and to care little of leading a good life”...

“He is truly great who is little in his own eyes and esteems all honors as naught”...

“It is only by resisting our passions, not by being slaves to them, that we will find true peace on earth”...

“Do not flatter the rich nor willingly appear before the great”...

“Many are under obedience more out of necessity than of love”...

“We often know not what we can do, but temptations discover what we are”...

“He does much who does well what he does, who regards the common good than his own”...

“If a man had but one spark of perfect charity, he would no doubt perceive that all earthly things are full of vanity”...

“The measure of one's virtue best appears in occasions of adversity, for occasions do not make a man frail but show what he is.”

- From Thomas A. Kempis ; "Imitation of Christ"

Work

"Character means many things but it has no component more valuable than the habit of doing what has to be done... the more creative our attitude toward work, the greater the enrichment we can derive from it."

- Ardis Whitman

"What we do in our working hours determines what we have; what we do in our leisure hours determines what we are."
- George Eastman

"Almost anything you do is insignificant, but it is important that you do it."
- Ghandi

"Work spares us from the three great evils... boredom, vice and greed."
- Voltaire

"No person who is enthusiastic about his work has anything to fear from life. All the opportunities in the world are waiting to be grasped by people who are in love with what they are doing."
- Sam Goldwyn

On choice of activity:
"There is a limit to the work that can be got out of human body or a human brain, and he is a wise man who wastes no energy on pursuits for which he is not fit, and he is wiser still who, from among the things he can do well, chooses and resolutely follows the best."
- William E. Gladstone

Worthlessness

"He who stands for nothing will fall for anything."

- Anonymous

Writers

Advise to writers:

"Put it briefly so they will read it; clearly so they will appreciate it; picturesquely so they will remember it; ABOVE all, accurately so they will be guided by its light."

- Joseph Pulitzer

Youth & Age

MacArthur's favorite:

"Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. People grow old only by deserting their ideals. Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. You are as young as your faith , as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair."

- by Samuel Ullman from "Live With Enthusiasm"

Youth & Immaturity

"Men and women are often congratulated for their youthfulness when they should be commiserated for their immaturity."

- Ashley Montagu

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