quotes from "Pierce Brosnan says Richard Osman was ‘too scared’ to visit Thursday Murder Club set"
https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/news/pierce-brosnan-richard-osman-netflix-thursday-murder-club-b2808457.html
by Maira Butt, Sunday 17 August 2025 19:01 EDT
quotes:
Pierce Brosnan has revealed that Thursday Murder Club writer Richard Osman was “too scared” to go on the set of the Netflix adaptation of his book.
“I think he was scared to come to the set, possibly,” the Die Another Day actor told Saga magazine. “He was a bit nervous, but he did join us and so did Steven [Spielberg, who is a producer on the movie].”
Brosnan stars alongside Helen Mirren, Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie in the forthcoming movie, which is set to be released in some cinemas later this month on 22 August, and on Netflix on 28 August.
It follows the story of a group of pensioners living in a sleepy retirement village, who form a group to investigate murders at their leisure. Based on the internationally bestselling book series by Osman, who will release the narrative’s fifth instalment next month.
Brosnan praised Thursday Murder Club for exploring the lives of older people, who he said are often “pushed to the side” of society.
“It will bring great comfort to people who are getting old,” he said. “We don’t really look after the elders in our society, they get pushed to the side. It’s a story of dignity and hope.”
. . .
Osman has previously said that his visual impairment has informed his characters, who have become much-loved by readers.
“In my life, I’m not judging people by what they look like, because I don’t really see it,” he said.
“I read books sometimes and someone will say, ‘someone has a twitch of their lip,’ or ‘their eyes do something,’ and I’m like, ‘I’ve never seen that. I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ That’s not how I see the world. I don’t see what people look like, but I do get a very strong vibe of the world, how people talk, the attitude that people have.”
quotes from Renovation of the Heart, Dallas Willard:
Christians are routinely taught by example and word that it is more important to be right (always in terms of their beloved vessel, or tradition) than it is to be Christlike...
It aims to get people into heaven rather than to get heaven into people...
Now, the project thus understood and practiced is self-defeating. It implodes upon itself because it creates groups of people who may be ready to die, but clearly are not ready to live. They rarely can get along with one another, much less those "outside." Often their most intimate relations are tangles of reciprocal harm, coldness, and resentment. They have found ways of being "Christian" without being Christlike....
As a result they actually fall far short of getting as many people as possible ready to die, because the lives of the "converted" testify against the reality of "the life that is life indeed" (ontos zoas, 1 Timothy 6:19, PAR).
- Dallas Willard (Renovation of the Heart)
www.facebook.com/theologywithhumility
quotes from Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart: Putting On the Character of Christ, 2002
Mean Christians: “a mean-spirited suspicion and judgment that mirrors the broader culture … you can be vilified for just the slightest move that is displeasing to someone”
“Christians are routinely taught by example and word that it is more important to be right [about church traditions] … than it is to be Christlike. In fact, being right licenses you to be mean, and indeed, requires you to be mean—righteously mean, of course. You must be hard on people who are wrong, and especially if they are in positions of Christian leadership. They deserve nothing better. This is … the practice of ‘condemnation engineering.’” (p. 238)
Result: groups of people who “rarely can get along with one another, much less those ‘outside.’ Often their most intimate relations are tangles of reciprocal harm, coldness, and resentment.” — “being ’Christian’ without being Christlike” (p. 239)
Another Result: “multitudes of people (surrounded by churches) who will not be in heaven because they have never, to their knowledge, seen the reality of Christ in a living human being” (p. 239)
(YIKES!!!)
“In a crisis, if you’re prepared, you win.”
~ Jorge H. MartÃnez, the owner of a small Mexican company near the U.S. border who is grateful for Trump's tariffs.
“Truth is, this whole thing benefited us.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/world/americas/mexico-trump-tariffs.html
When Mark Twain married Olivia Langdon, he told a friend:
"If I’d known how happy married life would make me, I’d have married 30 years earlier—skipping the whole business of growing teeth."
He was 32 at the time.
They couldn’t have been more different. Samuel Clemens (Twain’s real name) grew up in a poor family, worked from a young age, and tried his hand at everything — from piloting steamboats to mining silver — before becoming a writer. Olivia was the refined daughter of a wealthy businessman.
Twain fell in love with her… before they even met. A friend showed him a locket with Olivia’s portrait and invited him to visit. Within two weeks of meeting her in person, he proposed. She declined. Twice. The first time, she cited the age gap and his rough manners. The second time, his lack of religious devotion. Twain promised to become a good Christian for her, but still, she hesitated — even though in her heart, she already loved him.
Fate intervened when his carriage overturned on the way out of town. Pretending to be seriously injured, Twain ended up back in her home. Olivia offered to nurse him — and after yet another proposal, she finally said “yes.”
From that day on, Twain did everything to keep her happy. He read her the Bible every evening, prayed before meals, and even kept 15,000 pages of his writing unpublished because he knew she wouldn’t approve. She was his first editor, censoring anything too bold — once even removing Huck Finn’s “Confound it!” because it was too coarse.
Twain once said: “I’d stop wearing socks if she told me it was immoral.” She called him her “gray-haired boy” and looked after him as if he were one. In return, he credited her with keeping his energy, humor, and childlike spirit alive.
Even in hard times — losing children, bankruptcy, Olivia’s illness — they leaned on each other. Twain’s humor was her medicine; he filled their home and garden with silly notes to make her smile, even instructing birds when and how loudly to sing outside her window.
They never raised their voices to each other, never had a scandal, and never stopped being each other’s safe place. For one of her birthdays, Twain wrote:
"Every day we’ve lived together has deepened my certainty that we will never regret uniting our lives. With every year, my love for you, my dear, grows stronger. Let’s look forward — to future anniversaries, to old age — without fear or sadness."
A love story for the ages. 🥰
from Facebook, origin and validity unknown
"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest."
~Mark Twain
"Grief is unused love with nowhere to go."
~Rabbi Steven Z. Leder of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, Los Angeles, CA
The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/style/jessica-assaf-dean-prince-wedding.html
TAKE 7,000 STEPS
Are you getting in your steps? The supposed magic daily number, 10,000, has long been a fitness cliché. Researchers have come up with a more scientifically sound goal, and thankfully, it’s also more attainable: 7,000 steps.
To arrive at that number, researchers analyzed more than 50 studies. They found that even a small amount of walking was beneficial: Regular, moderate walks were associated with a lower risk of dementia and cardiovascular disease. But more is better, and people who walked 7,000 steps a day — roughly three miles — have a 47 percent lower risk of death compared with those who walked 2,000 steps.
“It is just as important to walk 7,000 steps a day as it is to take your pills,” said Dr. Joshua Knowles, a cardiologist at Stanford Health Care.
Isaiah 50:10-11 NIV
10 Who among you fears the Lord
and obeys the word of his servant?
Let the one who walks in the dark,
who has no light,
trust in the name of the Lord
and rely on their God.
11 But now, all you who light fires
and provide yourselves with flaming torches,
go, walk in the light of your fires
and of the torches you have set ablaze.
This is what you shall receive from my hand:
You will lie down in torment.
(Trust God instead of lighting your own torch.)
20 Inspirational Quotes From Pope Francis That People Will Remember for a Very Long Time
This post originally appeared at inc.com.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/smallbusiness/20-inspirational-quotes-from-pope-francis-that-people-will-remember-for-a-very-long-time/ar-AA1Ds5R2
Story by Bill Murphy Jr. • 4/22/2025
quotes:
I’ve compiled some of his most inspiring quotes below, that business leaders and others might find intriguing, even those who aren’t religious.
Note: Pope Francis’s first language was Spanish, and he was fluent and comfortable in Italian and Latin. Thus, his English-language quotes are almost always translations.
“The Lord never tires of forgiving. It is we who tire of asking for forgiveness.”
“You pray for the poor and then you feed them. That’s how prayer works.”
“The perfect family doesn’t exist, nor is there a perfect husband or a perfect wife, and let’s not talk about the perfect mother-in-law! It’s just us sinners. A healthy family life requires frequent use of three phrases: ‘May I?’ ‘Thank you,’ and ‘I’m sorry.’
“To be saints is not a privilege for a few, but a vocation for everyone.”
“So many of you have lost everything. I don’t know what to say to you. But the Lord does know what to say to you.” (Context: Pope Francis was speaking to survivors of Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013.)
“Migrants and refugees are not pawns on the chessboard of humanity. They are children, women, and men who leave or who are forced to leave their homes for various reasons, who share a legitimate desire for knowing and having, but above all for being, more.”
“Dear young people, do not bury your talents, the gifts that God has given you! Do not be afraid to dream of great things!”
“The measure of the greatness of a society is found in the way it treats those most in need, those who have nothing apart from their poverty!”
“If I repeated some passages from the homilies of the Church Fathers, in the second or third century, about how we must treat the poor, some would accuse me of giving a Marxist homily.”
“I see the church as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars. You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else.”
“Just as we need the courage to be happy, we also need the courage to live simply.”
“An authentic rule of law is verified precisely in the dignified treatment that all people deserve, especially the poorest and most marginalized.”
“If we want security, let us give security; if we want life, let us give life; if we want opportunities, let us provide opportunities. The yardstick we use for others will be the yardstick which time will use for us.”
“Every man, every woman who has to take up the service of government, must ask themselves two questions: ‘Do I love my people in order to serve them better?’ [and] ‘Am I humble and do I listen to everybody, to diverse opinions, in order to choose the best path?'”
“Embrace with tender affection the whole of humanity, especially the poorest, the weakest, the least important.”
“Holiness doesn’t mean doing extraordinary things, but doing ordinary things with love and faith.”
“Let us not be satisfied with a mediocre life. Be amazed by what is true and beautiful, what is of God!”
“If money and material things become the center of our lives, they seize us and make us slaves.”
“I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting, and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security.”
Finally, and a bit longer than the others above, is this last quote, which comes from Pope Francis’s final public speech, his Urbi et Orbi (“to the city and to the world”) address on Easter Sunday:
“What a great thirst for death, for killing, we witness each day …
How much violence we see, often even within families, directed at women and children! How much contempt is stirred up at times toward the vulnerable, the marginalized, and migrants!
On this day, I would like all of us to hope anew and to revive our trust in others, including those who are different than ourselves, or who come from distant lands, bringing unfamiliar customs, ways of life and ideas! For all of us are children of God!”
This post originally appeared at inc.com.
"Within every analogy is a fallacy.”
"False Analogy. This fallacy erroneously suggests that because two things are alike in some regards, they are similar in all ways."
~ The Longman Reader, p. 728
Turtle by Kay Ryan
Who would be a turtle who could help it?
A barely mobile hard roll, a four-oared helmet,
she can ill afford the chances she must take
in rowing toward the grasses that she eats.
Her track is graceless, like dragging
a packing case places, and almost any slope
defeats her modest hopes. Even being practical,
she’s often stuck up to the axle on her way
to something edible. With everything optimal,
she skirts the ditch which would convert
her shell into a serving dish. She lives
below luck-level, never imagining some lottery
will change her load of pottery to wings.
Her only levity is patience,
the sport of truly chastened things.
Question: "Do you think God stays in heaven because he too lives in fear of what he's created?"
quote:
The phrase "Do you think God stays in heaven because he too lives in fear of what he's created?" originates from the 2002 film "Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams," where it is spoken by the character Dr. Romero, played by Steve Buscemi. In the film, Dr. Romero is afraid to go out into the world due to the creatures he created, leading him to contemplate whether God, too, stays in heaven out of fear. This line has since become a popular catchphrase used to express disappointment or disdain in various contexts, often in ironic memes.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Spy_Kids_2:_The_Island_of_Lost_Dreams
Answer: "No, God does not live in fear of what he has created!
God loves his creation and God has ultimate power, control, and justice."
GOD'S PATIENCE
2 Peter 3:9 ESV
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
Romans 2:4 ESV
Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
John 3:16-17 ESV
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Philippians 4:6 ESV
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
James 5:7-8 ESV
Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
Revelation 6:9-11 ESV
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.
Joel 2:13 ESV
And rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.
Psalm 37:7-9 ESV
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!
Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.
Jeremiah 29:11 ESV
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Isaiah 40:31 ESV
But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
Exodus 34:6 ESV
The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
Ecclesiastes 7:8 ESV
Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.
Isaiah 30:18 ESV
Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.
Matthew 24:42 ESV
Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.
“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”
~ Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche,
from “Twilight of the Idols” published in 1889.
New York Times
Tuesday, May 27, 2025, p. A1, A6
Embassy Aide Quietly Buried Back in Israel
By ISABEL KERSHNER
BEIT ZAYIT, Israel -
Weeks before, Yaron Lischinsky had made plans to travel to Israel on Sunday with his partner, Sarah Milgrim. He wanted to introduce her to his family for the first time and, relatives said, propose to her.
Instead, Mr. Lischinsky, 30, was laid to rest on Sunday at sunset, in a small cemetery a short walk from his family home in the village of Beit Zayit, nestled in the wooded hills west of Jerusalem.
Mr. Lischinsky and Ms. Milgrim, 26, were gunned down on Wednesday night outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington as they left a reception for young professionals and diplomats hosted by the American Jewish Committee.
The gunman, identified by the police as Elias Rodriguez, 31, of Chicago, cried out, "Free, free Palestine!" as he was being apprehended - a call heard in protests around the world against Israel and its war in Gaza, which was ignited by the deadly Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.
Mr. Rodriguez has been charged with the murder of foreign officials, first-degree murder and other crimes. The U.S. authorities said they would also be investigating the attack as a hate crime and a crime of terrorism.
. . .
Mr. Lischinsky came from a culturally mixed background with a Jewish father and a Christian mother, and was a practicing Christian, according to brother, Hanan Lischinsky, 32
People who had worked with Mr. Lischinsky in the embassy said that over his last two years there, he had identified as Jewish.
The funeral service blended religious traditions and elements. A leader of the Hebrew-speaking King of Kings congregation of Jerusalem - part of a Messianic community that says its mission is to reveal the true face of Jesus to Israel - officiated alongside representatives of the Orthodox Jewish burial society.
"The best revenge is not to resemble your enemies," one of Mr. Lischinsky's family members, who the family asked not to be identified, said during the eulogies. "I choose love and not hate."
"The terrorist who killed my brother," the family member added, "I want to tell him that I love him, that I forgive him, and already I am not angry with him. If one day I see him I will give him a big hug, and I will tell him what a human Yaron was, and I will tell the terrorist how much God loves him, and that I am full of love toward him."
"If there is no God, nothing matters.
If there is a God, nothing else matters"
~ H.G. Wells
“There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something,” says Thorin Oakenshield in J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved fantasy novel The Hobbit.
“You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.”
~ J. R. R. Tolkien
British writer and philologist,
author of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit
After Lewis' death, Tolkien would say, “So far I have felt the normal feelings of a man my age — like an old tree that is losing all its leaves one by one; this feels like an axe-blow near the roots.”
~ J. R. R. Tolkien
British writer and philologist,
author of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit
"Wars tend to cause more problems than they solve."
~ Howard Zinn
http://www.sermoncentral.com/illustrations/sermon-illustration-martin-dale-stories-love-15299.asp
What Is Unique About Christianity?
The story of Jesus sitting and debating the Law with rabbis reminds me of another debate that took place in a comparative religions conference, the wise and the scholarly were in a spirited debate about what is unique about Christianity.
Someone suggested what set Christianity apart from other religions was the concept of incarnation, the idea that God became incarnate in human form. But someone quickly said, “Well, actually, other faiths believe that God appears in human form.”
Another suggestion was offered: what about resurrection? The belief that death is not the final word. That the tomb was found empty. Someone slowly shook his head. Other religions have accounts of people returning from the dead.
Then, as the story is told, C.S. Lewis walked into the room, tweed jacket, pipe, armful of papers, a little early for his presentation. He sat down and took in the conversation, which had by now evolved into a fierce debate.
Finally during a lull, he spoke saying, “what's all this rumpus about?” Everyone turned in his direction. Trying to explain themselves they said, “We're debating what's unique about Christianity.”
“Oh, that’s easy,” answered Lewis. “It’s grace.”
The room fell silent.
Lewis continued that Christianity uniquely claims God’s love comes free of charge, no strings attached. No other religion makes that claim.
After a moment someone commented that Lewis had a point. Buddhists, for example, follow an eight-fold path to enlightenment. It’s not a free ride.
Hindus believe in karma, that your actions continually affect the way the world will treat you; that there is nothing that comes to you not set in motion by your actions.
Someone else observed the Jewish code of the law implies God has requirements for people to be acceptable to him and in Islam God is a God of Judgment not a God of love. You live to appease him.
At the end of the discussion everyone concluded Lewis had a point. Only Christianity dares to proclaim God’s love is unconditional. An unconditional love that we call grace.
quotes:
In 2003, the psychiatrist Robert Waldinger accepted a new job at Harvard, where he had long been affiliated, overseeing one of its most prized research projects. . . . Waldinger, the fourth steward of the Harvard study, was moved by the consistency of his own research. . . .
Much of it added up to one key insight: “The clearest message that we get from this 75-year study is this: Good relationships keep us happier and healthier. Period,” he said in a TED Talk in 2015. Strong, long-term relationships with spouses, family and friends built on deep trust — not achievement, not fortune or fame — were what predicted well-being. Waldinger had worried that his big reveal was so intuitive that he would be laughed off the stage; instead, the talk is one of TED’s most watched to date, with more than 40 million views.
"How Nearly a Century of Happiness Research Led to One Big Finding" By Susan Dominus, May 1, 2025, New York Times,
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/magazine/happiness-research-studies-relationships.html
This "key insight" is actually 2,000-year-old wisdom:
Gospel
John 13:34-35 NRSV
Jesus Christ: "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
The next pope will inherit Pope Francis' mixed legacy with Indigenous people
Story by PETER SMITH, April 29, 2025, Associated Press
quotes:
Perhaps the most dramatic of [Pope] Francis’ encounters with the Indigenous community occurred on a July day in 2022 in Maskwacis, a small town in the Canadian province of Alberta and the hub of four Cree nations.
There, Pope Francis paid respects at a cemetery near a former residential school for Indigenous children. He then delivered a long-sought apology for Catholic complicity in the 19th- and 20th-century residential school system for the First Nations, Metis and Inuit people of Canada.
“I am deeply sorry, sorry for the ways in which, regrettably, many Christians supported the colonizing mentality of the powers that oppressed the Indigenous peoples,” Francis said.
The Rev. Cristino Bouvette recalled being unexpectedly emotional at that moment.
Bouvette, an Alberta priest of Cree and Metis heritage who was liturgical coordinator for the pope’s Canada visit, recalled hearing the applause and seeing some onlookers weeping.
. . .
“It’s 150 years of trauma. It’s going to take us a bit of time to recover,” said Wilton Littlechild, a residential school survivor and former Grand Chief of the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations in Canada. “He put us on a real strong path to reconciliation, but it can’t stop.”
. . .
Doctrine of Discovery
In 2023, the Vatican formally repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery, which legitimized colonial-era seizure of Native lands by Spain and Portugal. The concept forms the basis of some property laws today in the United States.
The Vatican said the related decrees, or papal bulls, “did not adequately reflect the equal dignity and rights of Indigenous peoples” and have never been considered expressions of the Catholic faith.
Fernie Marty, an elder in Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples, a parish that uses Native language and customs, said the action showed the pope was moving from words to deeds — what Marty called “reconcili-action.”
“I thought, wow, this is another proof that he’s on the right track,” he said.
But Lopez said Francis didn’t go far enough by not rescinding the papal bulls. To Lopez, that means they’re still technically on the books.
Not only do Native people have historical traumas, Lopez said, but the church itself needs healing from the “soul wound” of this legacy. But it has to fully make amends, he said.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-next-pope-will-inherit-pope-francis-mixed-legacy-with-indigenous-people/ar-AA1DOg4e as of 4/29/2025
quote:
The pollster Nate Silver guessed that Musk is “probably even a ‘genius,’” and theorized that he may not always appear that way because, as he put it on X, “high I.Q.s serve as a force multiplier for both positive and negative traits.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/05/arts/what-is-elon-musks-iq.html
"What Is Elon Musk’s I.Q.?" by Amanda Hess, April 5, 2025, New York Times
"These days I go to church more than synagogue. But I've learned you can't take the Jew out of the boy. I'm attracted to Jesus the Jew, not the wispy, ethereal, gentle-faced guy with his two fingers in the air whom Christians have invented and put into centuries of European paintings. The Jewish Jesus emerged amid revolution, violence and strife. He walked into the center of all the clashing authority structures and he overturned them all. The Jewish Jesus was a total badass."
~ David Brooks,
from his essay “The Shock of Faith: It’s Nothing Like I Thought It Would Be”
“When a clown moves into a palace he doesn’t become a sultan, the palace instead becomes a circus."
~ Turkish proverb
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
Barack Obama, President of the United States 2009-2017
Snopes.com fact check:
Elon Musk said these words during a Feb. 28, 2025, episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast, from around the 1:16:00 mark:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSOxPJD-VNo
Musk: There's a guy who posts on X who's great, Gad Saad?*
Rogan: Yeah, he's a friend of mine. He's been on the podcast a bunch of times.
Musk: Yeah, he's awesome, and he talks about, you know, basically suicidal empathy. Like, there's so much empathy that you actually suicide yourself. So, we've got civilizational suicidal empathy going on. And it's like, I believe in empathy, like, I think you should care about other people, but you need to have empathy for, for civilization as a whole, and not commit to a civilizational suicide.
Rogan: Also don't let someone use your empathy against you so they can completely control your state and then do an insanely bad job of managing it and never get removed.
Musk: The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy. The empathy exploit. They're exploiting a bug in Western civilization, which is the empathy response. So, I think, you know, empathy is good, but you need to think it through and not just be programmed like a robot.
Rogan: Right, understand when empathy has been actually used as a tool.
Musk: Yes, like, its weaponized empathy is the issue.
Source: Snopes.com "Yes, Musk said 'The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.' Here's context"
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/elon-musk-empathy-quote/
* Saad is an atheist who describes himself as culturally Jewish. (Zeitlin, Alan (26 May 2021). "Jewish author Gad Saad stares down the growing tide of antisemitism". The Jerusalem Post.)
Copilot definition of empathy vs. sympathy
Empathy and sympathy are related but distinct concepts:
Sympathy: Involves feeling compassion, sorrow, or pity for someone else's hardships. It is an external expression of concern for someone who is experiencing something difficult.
Empathy: Involves understanding and sharing another person's feelings by imagining yourself in their situation. It is an internal emotional response that allows you to connect with someone else's emotional experience.
In summary, sympathy is about feeling for someone, while empathy is about feeling with someone.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/empathy
: the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another
also : the capacity for this
“Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
~ Martin Luther King Jr.
"If your God never disagrees with you, you might be worshiping an idealized version of yourself."
~ Rev. Tim Keller
20 LESSONS FROM LIFE
from Bread for the Journey by Henri J.M. Nouwen:
“To console does not mean to take away pain but rather to be there and say, ‘You are not alone, I am with you. Together we can carry the burden. Don’t be afraid. I am here.’ That is consolation. We all need to give it as well as receive it.”
"The art of practical therapeutics involves keeping the patient entertained, while nature effects a cure."
~ Voltaire (1694-1778)
Late Fragment
by Raymond Carver
And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.
2-time CEO always asks this question in interviews: It shows if candidates ‘just want to complain’
Story by Gili Malinsky, 2/27/2025
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careersandeducation/2-time-ceo-always-asks-this-question-in-interviews-it-shows-if-candidates-just-want-to-complain/ar-AA1zVcDW
quotes:
Serial entrepreneur David Royce has been building companies for years. . . .
In his decades building businesses, Royce has identified some immediate red flags when interviewing job candidates. One is negative talk about former employers.
"It's totally okay to have both positive and negative things" to say about them, he says. But if a candidate focuses mostly on the negative, "then the problem is likely" that person.
As such, Royce has a question he likes to ask people he's interviewing to suss out their disposition.
'How might you have changed that situation?' . . .
"Tell me about your previous employer," he says. "What are some things that they could do to improve?" . . .
For any pitfalls they mention, he asks, "how might you have changed that situation?" . . .
"Are they constructive in the way they critique," giving examples of how they would've or could've solved the problem, or do they "just want to complain about it?" . . . [and] drag down the morale of the whole team.
"The No. 1 thing that makes A players want to leave is B players and certainly C players," he says. People who aren't focused on producing and creating a positive environment can "spoil your culture and then potentially force out the best talent."
When choosing who to hire, "I want to make sure somebody is generally positive and looking for opportunities to or ways to improve," he says.
"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
quote:
"'Aslan,' said Lucy, 'you're bigger.'
'That is because you are older, little one,' answered he.
'Not because you are?'
'I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.'"
~ C.S. Lewis, Prince Caspian, 1951.
“We may have as much of God as we will. Christ puts the key of the treasure-chamber into our hand, and bids us take all that we want. If a man is admitted into the bullion vault of a bank and told to help himself, and comes out with one cent, whose fault is it that he is poor?”
Alexander MacLaren,
the great Scottish Bible expositor
“They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their minds, yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out.”
~ C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1059917-the-last-battle
quotes:
“Then I fell at his feet and thought, Surely this is the hour of death, for the Lion (who is worthy of all honour) will know that I have served Tash all my days and not him. Nevertheless, it is better to see the Lion and die than to be Tisroc of the world and live and not to have seen him.
But the Glorious One bent down his golden head and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, Son, thou art welcome.
But I said, Alas Lord, I am no son of thine but the servant of Tash.
He answered, Child, all the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service done to me.
Then by reasons of my great desire for wisdom and understanding, I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, Lord, is it then true, as the Ape said, that thou and Tash are one?
The Lion growled so that the earth shook (but his wrath was not against me) and said, It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites, I take to me the services which thou hast done to him. For I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted. Dost thou understand, Child?
I said, Lord, though knowest how much I understand. But I said also (for the truth constrained me), Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days.
Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek.”
~ C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1059917-the-last-battle
“Emeth came walking forward into the open strip of grass between the bonfire and the Stable. His eyes were shining, his face was solemn, his hand was on his sword-hilt, and he carried his head high. Jill felt like crying when she looked at his face.
And Jewel whispered in the King's ear, "By the Lion's Mane, I almost love this young warrior, Calormene though he be. He is worthy of a better god than Tash.”
~ C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1059917-the-last-battle
“You want me to commit some great folly.”
~ Isabel Archer, protagonist in the novel The Portrait of a Lady (1881) by Henry James,
played by Nicole Kidman in John Malkovich's movie (1996)
The Portrait of a Lady (1881) by Henry James:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2834/2834-h/2834-h.htm
Osmond turned slightly pale; he gave a cold smile. “That’s why you must go then? Not to see your cousin, but to take a revenge on me.”
“I know nothing about revenge.”
“I do,” said Osmond. “Don’t give me an occasion.”
“You’re only too eager to take one. You wish immensely that I would commit some folly.”
“I should be gratified in that case if you disobeyed me.”
"Joy is the most infallible sign of the Presence of God."
~ Teilhard de Chardin
French Jesuit, Catholic priest, scientist, paleontologist, theologian, philosopher, and teacher.
“Music is the ultimate in safe sex.
You get all of the passion
and none of the guilt.”
Susan Werner in concert, 1-22-99
President Bill Clinton, after the acquittal verdict:
“I want to say again … how profoundly sorry I am for what I said and did to trigger these events and the great burden they have imposed on the Congress and the American people …”
Reporter’s question:
“In your heart, sir, can you forgive and forget?”
Clinton:
“I believe any person who asks for forgiveness has to be prepared to give it.”
Philadelphia Inquirer, February 13, 1999
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, thinking of the difficulty of shaking Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat’s hand to seal their peace accord on Sept. 19, 1993:
“You do not make peace with your friends, but friendship can come with time and trust and humility, when we do not pretend that our willfulness is an expressions of God’s will.”
Philadelphia Inquirer, February 5, 1999
“Remember that all the great peacemakers in the world,
in the end, have to let go and walk away,
like Christ, not from apparent,
but from genuine, grievances.”
President Bill Clinton, at the National Prayer Breakfast
Philadelphia Inquirer, February 5, 1999
Approaching Alzheimer’s Persons
• Use a calming tone of voice.
• Try to maintain eye contact.
• Identify yourself.
• Ask “yes” or “no” questions.
• Speak slowly, and not too loudly.
• Allow plenty of time for a response.
• Stay calm.
• Be supportive and reassuring.
Alzheimer’s Association, April 12, 1995
"If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to cut out a piece of his own heart?"
~ Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Leadership Magazine, 1983
"It may look like a crisis, but it's only the end of an illusion."
Prescott's Pickle Principle:
"Cucumbers get more pickled than brine gets cucumbered.
(A small system that tries to change a big system through long and continued contact is more likely to be changed itself.)"
The Secrets of Consulting: A Guide to Giving and Getting Advice, by Gerald Weinberg, 1986
"Love is best when it’s aged to perfection."
~ Author Unknown
Letting Things Speak About Themselves
Human knowledge about Jesus results from God’s revelation, not from conclusions drawn by seminars of self-appointed experts.
Speaking of Peter’s confession “You are the Christ,” Gillespie declared, “It is God who knows who Jesus is. And in that knowledge God identifies who Jesus is. ... Peter is one of the ways through whom this knowledge is revealed.”
In contemporary society this approach makes some people very nervous. In response to these concerns he cited Thomas Torrance, who points out that this is how all knowledge is attained — letting things speak about themselves to us. In science it is called “discovery.” In theology we call this mode of knowing “revelation.”
Peter did not tell Jesus who he was, he acknowledged who Jesus is, through the knowledge revealed by God.”
Thomas Gillespie, President, Princeton Seminary
“We Believe In One Lord Jesus Christ” theological convocation
Pittsburgh, April 19-22, 1995
King Arthur's Prayer
Give us the wisdom to know what is right,
The will to choose it,
And the strength to make it endure.
First Knight
1995
Bigot: “A person of strong conviction who is intolerant of those who differ.”
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
“It’s not just winning the game that counts,
but making sure everyone else loses.”
quote on being arrested from
John “Corrupt” Lee
Master of Destruction gang
Bedford-Stuyvesant, NY
SCIENCE OF CHARACTER BUILDING
POSITIVE NEGATIVE
Politeness Incivility
Ambition Apathy
Cheerfulness Despondency
Diligence Slothfulness
Endurance Weakness
Hope Despair
Industriousness Idleness
Optimism Pessimism
Purpose Indecision
Self-Confidence Dependency
Success Failure
Vigor Feebleness
Surprised by Joy The Shape of My Early Life, by C.S. Lewis, page 3
Influence of Lewis’ Parents
Lewis begins his journey of faith describing his parents:
“I was born in the winter of 1898 at Belfast, the son of solicitor and of a clergyman’s daughter… The two families from which I spring were as different in temperament as in origin. My father’s people were true Welshmen, sentimental, passionate, and rhetorical, easily moved both to anger and to tenderness; men who laughed and cried a great deal and who had not much of the talent for happiness. The Hamiltons were a cooler race. Their minds were critical and ironic and they had a talent for happiness in a high degree—went straight for it as experienced travelers go for the best seat in a train. From my earliest years I was aware of the vivid contrast between my mother's cheerful and tranquil affection and the ups and downs of my father's emotional life, and this bred in me long before I was old enough to give it a name a certain distrust or dislike of emotion as something uncomfortable and embarrassing and even dangerous."
"No competition cancels the tasks of the day that the performer sets for himself at every performance - to touch the human soul, to fully reveal the author's intention."
~ Alexander Malofeev (2016)
Russian pianist
There are two kinds of people:
those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,'
and those to whom God says,
'All right, then, have it your way.'
~ C. S. Lewis
Words of Encouragement in Challenging and Fearful Times
Joshua 1:1-9
NRSV
After the death
of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord spoke to Joshua son
of Nun, Moses’ assistant, saying, 2"My servant Moses is dead.
Now proceed to cross the Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I
am giving to them, to the Israelites. 3Every place that the
sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, as I promised to
Moses. 4From the wilderness and the Lebanon as far as the great
river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, to the Great Sea in
the west shall be your territory.
5No
one shall be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with
Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. 6Be
strong and courageous; for you shall put this people in possession of the land
that I swore to their ancestors to give them.
7Only
be strong and very courageous, being careful to act in accordance with all the
law that my servant Moses commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand
or to the left, so that you may be successful wherever you go. 8This
book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it
day and night, so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is
written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall
be successful.
9I
hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed,
for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."
From
"Lord of the Rings", inspired by author J.R. Tolkein's experiences facing
battles in the British army during World War I:
Lord of
the Rings, The Two Towers, movie version of Samwise Gamgee's speech
FRODO: I can’t
do this, Sam.
SAM: I know.
It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are.
It’s like in
the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness
and danger they were.
And sometimes
you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy. How could
the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened.
But in the end,
it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass.
A new day will
come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.
Those were the
stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small
to understand why.
But I think,
Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of
chances of turning back, only they didn’t. Because they were holding on to
something.
FRODO: What are
we holding on to, Sam?
SAM: That
there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.
https://thetolkien.forum/wiki/Sams-Speech
Lord of
the Rings, The Two Towers film: Aragorn's Speech before the battle
defending Helm's Deep
Theoden: So
much death. What can men do against such reckless hate?
Aragorn: Ride
out with me. Ride out and meet them.
Theoden: For
death and glory.
Aragorn: For
Rohan. For your people.
https://www.quotes.net/mquote/56716
Lord of the
Rings, Return of the King Film: Aragorn's Speech before the battle at the Black
Gate
Aragorn: Sons
of Gondor! Of Rohan! My brothers.
I see in your
eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me.
A day may come
when the courage of Men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds
of fellowship, but it is not this day.
An hour of
wolves and shattered shields when the Age of Men comes crashing down, but it is
not this day!
This day we
fight!
By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, Men of
the West!
https://shalafitnhs.tripod.com/returnoftheking.htm
Eleanor
Roosevelt
"You gain
strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop
to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do."
~ Eleanor
Roosevelt
Eleanor
Roosevelt (October 11, 1884—November 7,
1962) was an American first lady (1933–45), the wife
of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd president of the United States, and a United
Nations diplomat and humanitarian. She was, in her time, one of the world’s
most widely admired and powerful women.
She lived during World War II.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Eleanor-Roosevelt
Jane Austen
“My courage
always rises with every attempt to intimidate me.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet
Joseph to
his brothers, after they sold him into slavery and then found themselves under
his power in Egypt:
Genesis
50:20-21 ESV
"As for
you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good,
to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
So do not fear;
I will provide for you and your little ones.”
Thus he
comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
