Monthly Archives: January 2011

The Power of Order

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Outer order contributes to inner calm.
— Gretchin Rubin

How very much do they err who consider the absence of order and method as implying greater liberty or removing a sense of restraint.
— Charlotte Tonna

In my youth I stressed freedom, and in my old age I stressed order. I have made the great discovery that liberty is a product of order.
— Will Durant

Good order is the foundation of all good things.
— Edmund Burke

If you have time and place for everything and do everything in its time and place, you will not only accomplish more but have more leisure than those who are always hurrying as if vainly attempting to overtake what has been lost.
— Tryon Edwards

The Secret to Happiness

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The only really happy people are those who have learned how to serve.
— Albert Schweitzer

Happy people seldom think of happiness. They are too busy losing their lives in the meaningful sacrifices of service.
— David Augsburger

The roots of happiness grow deepest in the soil of service.
— Anonymous

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
— Mahatma Gandhi

The Adversity Advantage

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I would never have amounted to anything were it not for adversity. I was forced to come up the hard way.
— J.C. Penney

When a man is pushed, tormented, defeated, he has a chance to learn something; he has been put on his wits. He has gained facts, learned his ignorance, is cured of the insanity of conceit, has got moderation and real skill.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Everything good that has happened to me has happened as a result of something bad.
— Harry Caray

If Joseph had never been Egypt’s prisoner, he would have never been Egypt’s governor. The iron chain that bound his feet brought about the golden chain around his neck.
— L.B. Cowman

Adversity carries a positive charge: it strips away all the nonessentials and forces you back to your basic strengths. Adversity shoves you down to your core values and beliefs, to the things that matter most. Back on bedrock, you find the reasons and the strength to carry on and carry through.
— Pat Riley

Loving Your Child

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I’ll never grow tired of having my dad whisper, “I love you” in my ear.
— Anonymous, age 39

I think we should teach our children to love one another at home. They can learn this only from their father and mother, when they see the parents’ love for each other.
— Mother Teresa

Love, for Mama, was something she lived in action. She showed us, as Mother Teresa has, that love is found in sweeping a floor, cleaning a sink, caring for someone ill or offering a comforting embrace.
— Leo Buscaglia

When a father complains that his son has taken to evil ways, what should he do? Love him more than ever.
— Baal Shem Tov

Love letters are personalized little notes to your kids that let them know you’re fondly thinking of them. They are little messages of sunshine to brighten up their day. They are surprises that pop up when and where your child least expects. Put little notes under pillows, paste them on bathroom mirrors, or, for noontime pick-me-ups, stash one in their lunch boxes.
— Judy Ford

The Power of Work

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If the power to do hard work is not talent, it is the best possible substitute for it.
— James Garfield

Happiness walks on busy feet.
— Kitte Turmell

You must do the things today that others will not do so that you can have the things tomorrow that others will not have.
— Anonymous

If you can’t outsmart people, outwork them.
— Bill Veeck

The great composer does not set to work because he is inspired but becomes inspired because he is working. Beethoven, Wagner, Bach and Mozart settled down day after day to the job at hand. They didn’t waste time waiting for inspiration.
— Ernest Newman

Build Your Faith

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The strengthening of faith comes through staying with it in the hour of trial.
— Catherine Marshall

A weak faith is weakened by predicaments and catastrophes whereas a strong faith is strengthened by them.
— Viktor Frankl

Faith given back to us after a night of doubt is a stronger thing, and far more valuable to us than faith that has never been tested.
— Elizabeth Goudge

Your seed of greatness will not grow without you using your faith to stretch yourself beyond your past limitations.
— T.D. Jakes

Faith is not conjuring up, through an act of your will, a sense of certainty that something is going to happen. No, it is recognizing God’s promise as an actual fact, believing it is true, rejoicing in the knowledge of that truth and then simply resting because God said it.
— L.B. Cowman

A Long Life

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Let us cherish and love old age; for it is full of pleasure, if you know how to use it. The best morsel is reserved for last.
— Seneca

I have no time to grow old. I am too busy for that.
— George MacDonald

I don’t know what the big deal is about old age. Old people who shine from inside look 10 to 20 years younger.
— Dolly Parton

Old minds are like old horses: you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.
— John Adams

I’m very pleased with each advancing year. It stems back to when I was forty. I was a bit upset about reaching that milestone, but an older friend consoled me. “Don’t complain about growing old – many, many people do not have that privilege.”
— Earl Warren