“We have, indeed, but to glance at the biographies of great men to find that the most distinguished inventors, artists, thinkers, and workers of all kinds, owe their success, in a great measure, to their indefatigable industry and application…. Hence it happens that the men who have most moved the world, have not been so much men of genius, strictly so called, as men of intense mediocre abilities, and untiring perseverance… ‘Alas!’ said a widow, speaking of her brilliant but careless son, ‘he has not the gift of continuance.’ Wanting in perseverance, such volatile natures are outstripped in the race of life by the diligent and even the dull. ‘Che va piano, va longano, e va lontano,’ says the Italian proverb: Who goes slowly, goes long, and goes far.”

Samuel Smiles Self-Help

“We cannot describe mind in terms of matter; if only for the reason that we cannot even perceive matter except by mind.”

G.K. Chesterton “The Route of Reason” in Where Are The Dead? quoted in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 25 # 4 (March-April 2022)

“More than 1,500 pieces of graffiti were preserved in Pompeii when that Roman city was buried in volcanic ash 1,922 years ago. They include: ‘Aufidius was here.’ ‘Marcus loves Spendusa.’ ‘I am amazed, O wall, that you have not collapsed and fallen, since you must bear the tedious stupidities of so many scrawlers.’ Source: The Washington Post.”

Globe & Mail July 12, 2001 p. A16

“principally I hate and detest that animal called man; although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas and so forth.”

Jonathan Swift quoted by Rondi Adamson in Ottawa Citizen December 16, 2001

“it is perfectly permissible and perfectly natural to become bored with a subject just as it is perfectly permissible and perfectly natural to be thrown from a horse or to miss a trail or to look up the answer to a puzzle at the end of the book.”

GKC, “A Defence of Bores,” in Alberto Manguel, ed., On Lying in Bed and Other Essays by G.K. Chesterton

“Attention, application, accuracy, method, punctuality, and despatch, are the principal qualities required for the efficient conduct of business of any sort. These, at first sight, may appear to be small matters; and yet they are of essential importance to human happiness, well-being, and usefulness. They are little things, it is true; but human life is made up of comparative trifles. It is the repetition of little acts which constitute not only the sum of human character, but which determine the character of nations.”

Samuel Smiles Self-Help

“This negligence [by people who simply don’t give religion much thought] in a matter where they themselves, their eternity, their all are at stake, fills me more with irritation than pity; it astounds and appalls me; it seems quite monstrous to me…. One needs no great sublimity of soul to realize that in this life there is no true and solid satisfaction, that all our pleasures are mere vanity, that our afflictions are infinite, and finally that death which threatens us at every moment must in a few years infallibly face us with the inescapable and appalling alternative of being annihilated or wretched throughout eternity.”

Peter Kreeft Christianity for Modern Pagans: Pascal’s Pensées Edited, Outlined & Explained

“‘Most people have never really been listened to. They live in a lonely silence – no one knowing what they feel, how they live or what they have done…. There are no words to adequately describe what it is like to be free with another person. It is most often a sensing that someone will let us be all of what we are at that moment. We can talk about whatever we wish, express in any way whatever feelings are in our hearts. We can take as much time as we need. We can sit, stand, pace, yell, cry, pound the floor, dance or weep for joy. Whatever and however we are at the moment is accepted and respected…’”

Dr. Carl Faber’s book On Listening, quoted in Valerie Geller Creating Powerful Radio