Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Procrastination

"Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday."

~ Don Marquis

Monday, June 25, 2007

Reasoning Correctly

I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.

~ Michel de Montaigne

Saturday, June 23, 2007

What You Heard is Not What I Meant

I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.

~ Robert McCloskey

Friday, June 22, 2007

How You are Old

"It is not how old you are, but how you are old."

~ Jules Renard

Monday, June 18, 2007

A Crystal-Clear Reflection of a Love

Today, throughout the world, TaizĂ©’s name evokes peace, reconciliation, communion and the ardent expectation of a springtime of the Church:
“When the Church listens, heals, reconciles, then she becomes what she is in her most radiant aspect: a crystal-clear reflection of a love.” (Brother Roger)

http://www.taize.fr/en_article2468.html

Saturday, June 16, 2007

We Went Up and Up

One of the elders used to say: In the beginning when we got together we used to talk about something that was good for our souls, and we went up and up, and ascended even to heaven.
But now we get together and spend our time in criticizing everything, and we drag one another down into the abyss.

~ Wisdom of the Desert Fathers

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Manipulative Skills

Therapy doesn't actually help sociopaths--it further enables their bad behavior by sharpening their manipulative skills.

~ from a study by Samuel Yochelson and Stanton Samenow, psychiatrists specializing in the criminal mind

Charles M. Schulz quotes

A whole stack of memories never equal one little hope.

All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.

Aunt Marion was right... Never marry a musician, and never answer the door.

Big sisters are the crabgrass in the lawn of life.

Decorate your home. It gives the illusion that your life is more interesting than it really is.

Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia.

I have a new philosophy. I'm only going to dread one day at a time.

I know the answer! The answer lies within the heart of all mankind! The answer is twelve? I think I'm in the wrong building.

I love mankind; it's people I can't stand.

I think I've discovered the secret of life - you just hang around until you get used to it.

If I were given the opportunity to present a gift to the next generation, it would be the ability for each individual to learn to laugh at himself.

Life is like a ten speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use.

Life is like an ice-cream cone, you have to lick it one day at a time.

My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy. I can't figure it out. What am I doing right?

No problem is so formidable that you can't walk away from it.

No problem is too big to run away from.

Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love.

Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, "Where have I gone wrong?" Then a voice says to me, "This is going to take more than one night."

That's the secret to life... replace one worry with another.

The way I see it, it doesn't matter what you believe just so you're sincere.

There is no problem so big it cannot be run away from.

There's a difference between a philosophy and a bumper sticker.

Try not to have a good time... this is supposed to be educational.

Yesterday I was a dog. Today I'm a dog. Tomorrow I'll probably still be a dog. Sigh! There's so little hope for advancement.

You're a good man, Charlie Brown.

~ Charles M. Schulz

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD

The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly.

~ Proverbs 20:27 KJV

Be Careful What You Pretend to Be

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be."

~ Kurt Vonnegut

Friday, June 01, 2007

Song of Solomon 8:6-10

6 Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame.
7 Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If one offered for love all the wealth of his house, it would be utterly scorned.
8 We have a little sister, and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister, on the day when she is spoken for?
9 If she is a wall, we will build upon her a battlement of silver; but if she is a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar.
10 I was a wall, and my breasts were like towers; then I was in his eyes as one who brings peace.

Nothing for Us to Do

"If there was nothing wrong in the world there wouldn't be anything for us to do."

~ George Bernard Shaw, Irish dramatist

Fools Corrupt Power

“Power does not corrupt men. Fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power.”

~ George Bernard Shaw, Irish dramatist

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Consolation in Existing Churches

"Those who seek consolation in existing churches often pay for their peace of mind with a tacit agreement to ignore a great deal of what is known about the way the world works."

~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, 1990

Clergy and the Rest of the Nation

"It will, I believe, be everywhere found, that as the clergy are, or are not what they ought to be, so are the rest of the nation."

~ Jane Austen (1775 - 1817), Mansfield Park

Quotations by Author Randy K. Milholland

Quotations by Author Randy K. Milholland
Webcomic pioneer

Sometimes old things need to go away. That way, we have room for the new things that come into our lives.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive webcomic, 09-17-05

Never confuse the faith with the supposedly faithful.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 10-19-06

The only time anyone's admitted they were a Christian before was when they were busy telling me why they're better than me.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 10-19-06

We all have a few failures under our belt. It's what makes us ready for the successes.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Midnight Macabre, 10-18-05

In the end, we decide if we're remembered for what happened to us or for what we did with it.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 06-29-06

In the end, you'll know which people really love you. They're the ones who see you for who you are and, no matter what, always find a way to be at your side.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 08-23-05

Things aren't magically better if that's what you're hoping for. It's not that simple.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 02-11-05

Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 07-03-05

It's a lot like nature. You only have as many animals as the ecosystem can support and you only have as many friends as you can tolerate the bitching of.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 08-16-05

Sometimes people do things that hurt and it's not because they mean to. They just do. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with you, but you end up hurt because of it.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 08-23-05

It hurts to find out that what you wanted doesn't match what you dreamed it would be.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 09-07-04

The only thing that lasts longer than a friend's love is the stupidity that keeps us from knowing any better.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 09-07-06

The shortest verse in the Bible is 'Jesus wept.' The only thing wrong with it is the past tense.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 10-10-06

Slow and steady wins the race, then wastes no time grinding salt-caked glass in your open wounds.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 11-06-05

Sometimes the measure of friendship isn't your ability to not harm but your capacity to forgive the things done to you and ask forgiveness for your own mistakes.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 11-07-05

There are people I know who won't hurt me. I call them corpses.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 12-06-05

Could you imagine how horrible things would be if we always told others how we felt? Life would be intolerably bearable.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 12-09-05

Why do we have to wait for special moments to say nice things or tell people we care about them?
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 12-09-05

The only way to be truly misogynistic is to be a woman.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive webcomic, 11-11-04

It's not a matter of whether or not someone's watching over you. It's just a question of their intentions.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive, 03-24-07

Success only hurts the first time.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive, 04-01-2006

I barely trust established sources of information. I have a hard time finding [Wikipedia], an encyclopedia that anyone can alter, to be a safe way to learn about anything except how many idiots think their opinions are a suitable substitute for facts.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive, 10-31-2006

I guess that's how death works. It doesn't matter if we're ready or not. It just happens.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive, 11-29-2006

Forgiveness is one of the many horrible side effects of loving someone.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive, 12-29-05

www.quotationspage.com/

Literary Equivalent

"I am the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and Fries."

~ Stephen King

Jesus of Nazareth - Introduction

from Jesus of Nazareth,
Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI

(underlining added)

Introduction

"Religions do not aim merely to answer the question about our provenance; all religions try in one way or another to lift the veil of the future. They seem important precisely because they impart knowledge about what is to come, and so show man the path he has to take to avoid coming to grief." (p. 2)

"[Jesus] shows us the face of God, and in so doing he shows us the path that we have to take." (p. 4)

Jesus, the new Moses promised in Deut. 18:15, knows God "face to face":

"Jesus is only able to speak about the Father in the way he does because he is the Son, because of his filial communion with the Father. The Christological dimension--in other words, the mystery of the Son as revealer of the Father--is present in everything Jesus says and does. ...
The disciple who walks with Jesus is thus caught up with him into communion with God. And that is what redemption means: this stepping beyond the limits of human nature, which had been there as a possibility and an expectation in man, God's image and likeness, since the moment of creation." (p. 7-8)

The great Christ-hymn of the Letter to the Philippians

"As early as twenty or so years after Jesus' death, the great Christ-hymn of the Letter to the Philippians (cf. Phil 2:6-11) offers us a fully developed Christology stating that Jesus was equal to God..." (p. xxii)

Philippians 2:5-15

5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, 8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death-- even death on a cross.

9 Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

12 Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

14 Do all things without murmuring and arguing, 15 so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Women, wine and song

"Who loves not women, wine and song
remains a fool his whole life long."

~ Martin Luther

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Prayer used by Mohandas Gandhi

a prayer/poem that Gandhi is said to have often recited to himself:

Let hundreds like me perish, but let Truth prevail.
Let us not reduce the standards of Truth
even by a hair's breadth
for judging erring mortals like myself.

In judging myself I shall try to be as harsh as truth,
as I want others also to be.
Measuring myself by that standard I must exclaim with Surdas*:
" Where is there a wretch
So wicked and loathsome as I?
I have forsaken my Maker,
So faithless have I been.

~ attributed to Mohandas K. Gandhi

*Surdas - a 14th century Indian poet/ Saint /mystic/ Holy man