The Word of the Month: Ponderings
June 30, 2020
Quarantine, protests, rioting, surging Covid cases, Sahara dust wafting over Kentucky. . . A great big wad of pondering has invaded my soul this month. I’m not qualified to say anything brilliant or helpful in this disturbing time, so I thought I would cheat and simply list some favorite quotes that could be apropos right now.
“Be not dumb, obedient slaves in an army of destruction. Be heroes in an army of construction.” –Helen Keller
“And remember the truth that once was spoken: To love another person is to see the face of God.” –Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
“Nobody loves the light like the blind man.”–Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
“Morality is truth in full bloom.”–Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
“Every bird that flies has the thread of the infinite in its claw.”–Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
“Chronic remorse, as all the moralists are agreed, is a most undesirable sentiment. If you have behaved badly, repent, make what amends you can and address yourself to the task of behaving better next time. On no account brood over your wrongdoing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean.”–Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”–Aldous Huxley, Complete Essays
“True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.”–Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.–Martin Luther King, Jr.
“The time is always right to do what is right.”–Martin Luther King, Jr.
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.–Martin Luther King, Jr.
“I am an invisible man. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids–and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
“It isn’t what we say or think that defines us, but what we do.” Jane Austen, The Prayers of Jane Austen
“It is very unfair to judge anybody’s conduct, without an intimate knowledge of their situation.” Jane Austen, Emma
“With the right words, you can change the world.” E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web
“Whenever you find yourself of the side of the majority it is time to pause and reflect.” Mark Twain
“Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.” Mark Twain
“Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.” Mark Twain
“The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.” pMark Twain
“The best portion of a man’s life, his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.” William Wordsworth, Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey
“Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:/ The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,/ Hath had elsewhere its setting,/ And cometh from afar:/ Not in entire forgetfulness,/ And not in utter nakedness,/ But trailing clouds of glory do we come/ From God who is our home:” William Wordsworth, Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood.
“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” William Wordsworth
“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.‘ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'” Jesus, Matthew 22:37-39 (NKV)
That’s all I have for this month, but I think it’s enough. Let’s go and be the Church!
