“Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.”
Thomas à Kempis, quoted as standalone “WORDS OF WISDOM” in Epoch Times email April 20, 2022.
“Men have no right to complain that they are naturally feeble and short-lived, or that it is chance and not merit that decides their destiny. On the contrary, reflection will show that nothing exceeds or surpasses the powers with which nature has endowed mankind, and that it is rather energy they lack than strength or length of days.”
Sallust, The Jugurthine War
“We live in strange times. Humans are loose upon the earth.”
Not sure why this of all weeks I quoted myself so often (this one from May 12, 2005) but since I don’t check the attributions while choosing them, only when posting them, we’re both stuck with it.
“acedia – the terrifying condition of not much caring about anything”
A writer whose name I did not record in National Review February 1, 1993
“the saying, ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try something else.’”
Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull, The Peter Principle (without further attribution)
“The believers in miracles accept them because they have evidence for them. The disbelievers in miracles deny them because they have a doctrine against them.”
G.K. Chesterton quoted in Gilbert! magazine Vol. 6 #4 (Jan.-Feb. 2003)
“Human affairs are not serious, but they have to be taken seriously.”
Iris Murdoch, quoted as “Thought du jour” in Globe & Mail October 4, 2002
“May you live through interesting times.”
Another of mine, from September 13 2001 (and yes, adapted from the supposed Chinese curse “May you live in interesting times.”)
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