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What's the point in being grown up if you can't act like a
child? This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by
yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish,
selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will
not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole
community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.
I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I
work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no
"brief candle" to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I
have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as
possible before handing it on to future generations. Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity
for experience. Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to
draw back, always inffectiveness, concerning all acts of initiative (and
creation). There is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills
countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits
oneself, then Providence moves, too. All sorts of things occur to help one
that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues
from the decision, raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen incidents
and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have
come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness
has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.
Once upon a time (in the last millennium), we used to have United States presidents who were actually committed to upholding the Constitution and the ideals for which it stands (or should I say "stood"?). Here are a handful of (mostly) presidential quotes harking back to the days when that office still had some honor associated with it: To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
If you want to see a miracle, be the miracle. You are never too old to be what you might have been. If you want to be light and airy, cast that which weighs most
heavily upon you into the abyss. Happiness does not lay in having what you want; happiness lays in wanting what you have. You can have anything you want but you can't have everything
you want. If you want to be happy, notice that you are. The hardest thing about being happy is getting that it's not
hard. Hope is the feeling you have that the feeling you have isn't
permanent. To love what you do and feel that it matters - how could
anything be more fun? Taking such good care of ourselves that we have an abundance
of love to give to others is called service.
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our
deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not
our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, "who am I
to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?" Actually, who are
you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't
serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other
people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the
glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in
everyone. To believe that what has not occurred in history will not
occur at all is to argue disbelief in the dignity of man. We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are. Do or do not. There is no try. It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to have to paint it. |
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