The Words of Others

 

I set out writing this blog by promising you three hundred words every two weeks. However, I didn’t say they would always be my own words. So today I’m sharing with you some quotations that have been especially meaningful to me.

 Many of you know that I’ve long had a love affair with the wisdom and wit I’ve encountered in others. As a result, I have published eight anthologies of quotations, on topics as diverse as travel and leadership, and the media and paradoxes. The most recent is a brief selection on grief, Grace for the Grieving: Words of Comfort in Times of Loss. (Available on Amazon.)

 Now, in alphabetical order by author, here we have:

 Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

                        – Philo Judaeus

 There are no ordinary people.  You have never talked to an ordinary mortal…  It is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors…  Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.

                        – C. S. Lewis

 I’m continually asking myself, “What is the best use of my time right now?”

                        – Alan Lakein

 Never, for the sake of peace and quiet, deny your own experience or convictions.

                        – Dag Hammarskjöld

 When we cannot do the good we would, we must be ready to do the good we can.

                        – Matthew Henry

 A wise man cares not for what he cannot have.

– George Herbert

 If not you, who? If not now, when?

– Rabbi Hillel

 Have thy tools ready. God will find thee work.

                        – Charles Kingsley

 Wisdom is merely knowing what to do next.

                        – Unknown

 At the end of my life, God will not ask me, “Why were you not Moses?”  God will ask instead, “Why were you not Zusya?”

                        – Rabbi Zusya

 [300 words]