If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.- Desmond Tutu

My father always used to say, "Don't raise your voice. Improve your argument." Good sense does not always lie with the loudest shouters, nor can we say that a large, unruly crowd is always the best arbiter of what is right.= Desmond Tutu

One of the hardest things to teach a child is that the truth is more important than the consequences.- Eddie Rickenbacker, 1890 - 1973

The sensation of dying is sweet, sensuous, placid. It is the easiest thing in the world to die. The hardest is to live. - Eddie Rickenbacker, 1890 - 1973

You are not a reservoir with a limited amount of resources; you are a channel attached to unlimited divine resources. - Unknown

Life is a voyage in which we choose neither vessel nor weather, but much can be done in the management of the sails and the guidance of the helm.-Unknown

The attentive reader will notice two items about the New
Testament, as he comes to the end of it. For one thing, there
is no book of church order, laying down a code of rules for the
worship and organization of the communities: [there is] no book
corresponding to the Book of Leviticus. The other thing is that
the writings are all meant for communities, not for
individuals: they reflect and presuppose the life of a society
or fellowship. Even the private notes of Paul to Philemon and
of the presbyter John to Gaius are addressed to these
individuals as members of the church;- James Moffatt (1870-1944), A New Translation of the Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments, London:
Hodder and Stoughton, 1935, New York: Harper, 1935,Introduction, p. xxxv

The evils of riches, to the Christian, are the evils of distraction (the distraction that keeps men from thinking about God), the evils of a false dependence on the created order, and a would-be security that fails to take account o the inevitable fragility of human destiny on this earth.- D. L. Munby

You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose. - Mario Cuomo

I know that worry works because nothing I have ever worried about has happened - Anon

Discontent makes us lose what we have; contentment gets us what we lack. -Thomas Jacombe (1622-1687)

Truth exists; only lies are invented.

From each as they choose, to each as they are chosen. ~Nozick

Oddities only strike ordinary people. Oddities do not strike odd people. This is why ordinary people have a much more exciting time, while odd people are always complaining of the dullness of life. ~ G.K. Chesterton

Patience is a virtue that carries a lot of wait. Amish Proverb

If you can't see the bright side, polish the dull. -Amish Proverb

Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly. -Amish Proverb

Instead of complaining that the rosebush is full of thorns, be glad that 
the thornbush has roses. -Amish Proverb

Life is a grindstone. Whether it grinds you down or polishes you up 
depends on what you are made of. -Amish Proverb

You can tell when you're on the right track. It's usually uphill. -Amish Proverb

They who trim themselves to suit others will soon whittle themselves away. -Amish Proverb

If the grass looks greener on the other side, fertilize. -Amish Proverb

The world is full of abundance and opportunity, but far too many people come to the fountain of life with a sieve instead of a tank car, a teaspoon instead of a steam shovel. They expect little and as a result they get little.- Ben Sweetland

Not what we have, but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.- John Petit-Senn, 1792 - 1870

Many a man curses the rain that falls upon his head, and knows not that it brings abundance to drive away hunger.- Basil, 329 - 379

Found a little patched-up inn in the village of Bulson.... Proprietor had nothing but potatoes; but what a feast he laid before me. Served them in five different courses: potato soup, potato fricassee, potatoes creamed, potato salad, and finished with potato pie. It may be because I had not eaten for 36 hours, but that meal seems about the best I ever had. - Douglas MacArthur, 1880 - 1964, in his World War I diary

It is no small honour that God for our sake has so magnificently adorned the world, in order that we may not only be spectators of this beauteous theatre, but also enjoy the multiplied abundance and variety of good things which are presented to us in it. - John Calvin, 1509 - 1564

No candle which God lights was ever meant to burn alone.- J. C. Ryle

Character, like a photograph, develops in darkness.- Yousuf Karsh, 1908 - 2002

Without Christ I was like a fish out of water. With Christ I am in the ocean of love.- Sadhu Singh

Without realizing what was happening, most of us gradually
came to take for granted the premises underlying this
philosophy of optimism. We proceeded to live these
propositions, though we would not have stated them as blandly
as I set them forth here:
Man is inherently good.
Individual man can carve out his own salvation with the
help of education and society through progressively better
government.
Reality and values worth searching for lie in the material
world that science is steadily teaching us to analyze,
catalogue, and measure. While we would not deny the existence
of inner values, we relegate them to second place.
The purpose of life is happiness, [which] we define in
terms of enjoyable activity, friends, and the accumulation of
material objects.
The pain and evil of life--such as ignorance, poverty,
selfishness, hatred, greed, lust for power--are caused by
factors in the external world; therefore, the cure lies in the
reforming of human institutions and the bettering of
environmental conditions.
As science and technology remove poverty and lift from us
the burden of physical existence, we shall automatically become
finer persons, seeing for ourselves the value of living the
Golden Rule.
In time, the rest of the world will appreciate the
demonstration that the American way of life is best. They will
then seek for themselves the good life of freedom and
prosperity. This will be the greatest impetus toward an end of
global conflict.
The way to get along with people is to beware of religious
dictums and dogma. The ideal is to be a nice person and to live
by the Creed of Tolerance. Thus we offend few people. We live
and let live. This is the American Way.-Catherine Marshall (1914-1983), Beyond Our Selves, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1961, p. 5-6

Life is terminal; something will get you in the end.- Elliott Larson M.D.

Tolerance comes with age. I see no fault committed that I myself could not have committed at some time or other.-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

How Can Such a Man Be Just Before God?
"Their righteousness is from Me!" Isaiah 54:17
The longer the Christian lives--the more he learns. And the more the Spirit teaches him--the more he loathes himself and renounces his own righteousness as filthy rags.
He hoped sensibly . . .
to grow in holiness,
to feel his corruptions subdued, and
to enjoy the presence of his God without interruption.
But instead of this:
he seems to grow more like Satan,
his corruption appears to get stronger and stronger, and
the depravity of his nature appears more and more dreadful!
He thinks himself to be a monster of iniquity, and wonders how God can possibly love him, or show any favor unto him.
Yet, this heart-felt experience . . .
endears God's free grace,
renders Christ unspeakably precious,
and the gift of righteousness invaluable!
How can such a man be just before God? Where is his righteousness to come from? Jehovah answers, "His righteousness is from Me!"
Jesus wrought it;
the Father imputes it to us;
the gospel reveals it; and
faith receives it, puts it on, and pleads it before God.
Precious Jesus! in You alone, I have righteousness and strength!
James Smith, "The Pastor's Morning Visit"

Finally, a poem about the area where I live, Perivale, Middlesex now in the Borough of Ealing, London.

Gaily into Ruislip Gardens
Runs the red electric train,
With a thousand Ta's and Pardon's
Daintily alights Elaine;
Hurries down the concrete station
With a frown of concentration,
Out into the outskirt's edges
Where a few surviving hedges
Keep alive our lost Elysium - rural Middlesex again..

Well cut Windsmoor flapping lightly,
Jacqmar scarf of mauve and green
Hiding hair which, Friday nightly,
Delicately drowns in Drene;
Fair Elaine the bobby-soxer,
Fresh-complexioned with Innoxa,
Gains the garden - father's hobby -
Hangs her Windsmoor in the lobby,
Settles down to sandwich supper and the television screen.

Gentle Brent, I used to know you
Wandering Wembley-wards at will,
Now what change your waters show you
In the meadowlands you fill!
Recollect the elm-trees misty
And the footpaths climbing twisty
Under cedar-shaded palings,
Low laburnum-leaned-on railings
Out of Northolt on and upward to the heights of Harrow hill.

Parish of enormous hayfields
Perivale stood all alone,
And from Greenford scent of mayfields
Most enticingly was blown
Over market gardens tidy,
Taverns for the bona fide,
Cockney singers, cockney shooters,
Murray Poshes, Lupin Pooters,
Long in Kensal Green and Highgate silent under soot and stone.
John Betjeman, Middlesex,From "A Few Late Chrysanthemums" (1954) & "Collected Poems"


Graham J Weeks M.R.Pharm.S
http://www.christiansquoting.org.uk 10201 quotes 654 topics 2452 authors
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http://christianquoter.blogspot.com/ My blog
http://iuhuru.com/category/columnists/graham-weeks/ - my weekly column
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Question reality. Question authority.
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Oh, sinner, do not wonder that it is so bad with you—but rather wonder that it is no worse!—Thomas Watson

It is only when we want to take our lives out of the Father’s hands and have them under our own control that we find ourselves gripped with anxiety. The secret of freedom from anxiety is freedom from ourselves & abandonment of our own plans. But that spirit emerges in our lives only when our minds are filled with the knowledge that our Father can be trusted implicitly to supply everything we need. - Sinclair Ferguson

Evangelism and social concern are like the two wings of a
bird. Without an intimate association of the two, the church
cannot hope to grow over the long term.-Thomas Houston, former president, World Vision International, in a private communication from World Vision

We all live in a televised goldfish bowl. Kingman Brewster, Jr, 1919 - 1988

While the spoken word can travel faster, you can't take it home in your hand. Only the written word can be absorbed wholly at the convenience of the reader. Kingman Brewster, Jr, 1919 - 1988

Perhaps the most fundamental value of a liberal education is that it makes life more interesting. It allows you to think things which do not occur to the less learned ... it makes it less likely that you will be bored with life. Kingman Brewster, Jr, 1919 - 1988

Incomprehensible jargon is the hallmark of a profession.- Kingman Brewster, Jr, 1919 - 1988

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