Quotes Sep 9 HB Leo Tolstoy 1828

What a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness.--Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)

The more is given the less people will work for themselves, and the less they work the more their poverty will increase.-Leo Tolstoy,"Help for the Starving, Part II" January, 1892

Would reason ever have proved to me that I must love my neighbour instead of strangling him? I was told that in my childhood and I believed it gladly, for they told me what was already in my soul. But who discovered it? Not reason. Reason discovered the struggle for existence, and the law demanding that I should strangle all who hinder the satisfaction of my desires. That is the deduction of reason. But loving one's neighbour reason could never discover, because it's unreasonable.-- Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

It is by those who have suffered that the world has been advanced. Leo Tolstoy
Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold. -- Leo Tolstoy

The creation and sale of most art today is pure prostitution. The comparison is true in every detail. Real art can only rarely be created even by a real artist; like a child in a mother's womb, it is the ripened fruit of his prior life. False art, though, can be ceaselessly produced by craftsmen, according to the dictates of a market. Like a faithful wife who loves her husband, real art does not need any excess decoration; like a prostitute, false art demands to be decorated. True art comes out of an artist's urgent need to express the feelings that have formed inside him, just as a mother needs to give birth to her baby. False art answers only to profit. Real art brings new feelings into our life, as a woman brings a new person into the world. False art corrupts; it makes a person dissipated, distracts him, weakens his spiritual power. Everyone must understand this, in order that they shun the terrible proliferation of this dirty, dissipated type of art which is, on its face, prostitution.--Leo Tolstoy, "A Calendar of Wisdom"

The problem of the meaning of life is intractable, but life's purpose becomes very simple when we ask ourselves what we should do. -Tolstoy

HB Queen Elizabeth I, 7 Sep 1533

I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England, too; and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realms: to which, rather than any dishonour should grow by me, I myself will take up arms; I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field.-Queen Elizabeth I Speech to her armies shortly before the sea battle in the English that defeated the Armada, 1588

I have known many persons who turned their gold into smoke, but you are the first to turn smoke into gold. - Queen Elizabeth I (1533 - 1603), to Sir Water Raleigh

I plucke up the goodlie greene herbes of sentences by pruning, eat them by reading, chawe them by musing, and laie them up at length in the hie seate of memorie by gathering them together; that I, having tasted the sweetenes, l may the lesse perceave the bitternes of this miserable life. ~Elizabeth I 1533-1603 - written in copy of the Epistles of St Paul, ( c.August 1576 )

Sep 6 Quotes

The devil's snare does not catch you, unless
you are first caught by the devil's bait.
     --Saint Ambrose (c. 340-397)

...the authority of government does not derive from the consent of the governed or a social contract. ; it derives from he one who 'requires' justice. - Jonathan Leman, Political Church, p196

Lot had the paradise, such as it was, but Abram had the promise. - Mathew Henry on Gen 13:14-15.

]Sep 5 Quotes

The way of sin is downhill; a man cannot stop himself when he will. - Mathew Henry on Gen 3:6

Politics refers to (1) the institutional activity of governance (2) over an entire population (3) backed by the power of coercion. which in varying degrees will be regarded as legitimate. - Quentin Skinner, he Foundations of Modern Political Thought, p.352

'Anything on which your heart relies and defends, I say, that really is your God.'(Luther). By his definition, everybody has a god - something that they worship, sorting that justifies the, something that claims the first fruits of their income, and the commands all their obedience. - Jonathan Leeman, Political Church, p78

Quotes Sep 4

A shepherd will carry a sheep on his shoulders. He encounters many rocks and thorns and streams on the way, but the sheep feels no difficulty; it is carried above all. So it is with every soul that yields itself to Christ - the only difficulty is to remain on His shoulders.- Robert Murray M'Cheyne@NearToGod

A survey of 64,000 people in 65 nations found that 70% of people are content with their lives. Africa is the place where people are happiest (83%), while people in Western Europe are the least happy , with 11% saying they are unhappy or very unhappy. In Africa 75% expect life to get beer, compared with 26% in Europe. - Patrick Dixon, The Future of Almost Everything, p.280
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Global sea levels are rising at an alarmingly fast rate — 6.7 inches in the last century alone and going higher. Surface temperatures are setting new heat records about each year. The ice sheets continue to decline, glaciers are in retreat globally, and our oceans are more acidic than ever. We could go on…which is a whole other problem.
The majority of scientists are in agreement that human contributions to the greenhouse effect are the root cause. Essentially, gases in the atmosphere – such as methane and CO2 – trap heat and block it from escaping our planet.
So what happens next? More droughts and heat waves, which can have devastating effects on the poorest countries and communities. Hurricanes will intensify and occur more frequently. Sea levels could rise up to four feet by 2100 – and that’s a conservative estimate among experts.- Earth Day website

Quotes Sep 3

"The remarkable thing about God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else."— Oswald Chambers

Kenneth Watt warned around 1970 about a pending Ice Age in a speech. “The world has been chilling sharply for about twenty years,” he declared. “If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age.”

Seasons vary, circumstances change, feelings fluctuate, friendships cool, friends die--but Christ is ever the same!- Octavius Winslow (1808-1878)

Quotes 2 Sep

Prayer is the pulse of the renewed soul--and the constancy of its beat is the test and measure of the spiritual life!- Octavius Winslow (1808-1878)

Sen. Gaylord Nelson wrote in Look around 1970 that, “Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, believes that in 25 years, somewhere between 75 and 80 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.”

“The carnal mind will always instinctively and automatically mobilize every possible reason it can possibly conceive for not praying at a particular time. For example, you are too busy; your mind is too preoccupied; your heart is not inclined toward prayer......later on you will have more time, your mind will be more calm and collected, and you will be able to pray in a more devotional frame of mind. Before we know it, the entire day is gone, and we have not had a single quiet hour alone with Christ.” - O. Hallesby