The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd US President (1882-1945)
There are those who will believe that this statement smacks of socialism, if not communism. Giving to those [...]
Archive for April, 2007
Consequences of Depriving the Poor Are Harsh
Posted in Uncategorized on April 17, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Your Future: Eternal What?
Posted in Human Nature on April 16, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
The days come and go like muffled and veiled figures sent from a distant friendly party, but they say nothing, and if we do not use the gifts they bring, they carry them as silently away.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)
The days say nothing. Have you noticed how quickly your days pass than [...]
Another Life Mystery Solved
Posted in Human Nature on April 15, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
When your life is about serving, your needs will always be met. When your life is about obtaining your needs, your needs will always elude you.
- Bill Ferguson, author/speaker, Mastery of Life
Let me be candid. For the first four decades of my life I would have considered this advice foolish, if not a waste of [...]
China 2008: The Genocide Olympics
Posted in World Politics on April 14, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Here are two men disputing. One knocks the other man down, kills him, and then concludes that he who is alive must have been right, and he who is dead must have been wrong… a mode of demonstration still accepted in international disputes.
- Will Durant, writer and historian (1885-1981)
Note the dates for Mr. Durant. He [...]
Help or Please Your Friend? Which Is Right?
Posted in Human Nature on April 13, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
In giving advice, seek to help, not please, your friend.
- Solon
This simple, concise maxim delivers a great wealth of benefit.
Why would you not want to please your friend, rather than to help him? Because friends are not for pleasing.
We please those from whom we hope or expect some gain for ourselves. We please those about whom [...]
Uncontrolled Capitalism Failed Us
Posted in Uncategorized on April 11, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.
- Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955)
And yet we do. In general, the economic system practised in western countries follows the thinking of Adam Smith.
Smith said that the free market system where the wealthy are allowed to invest and [...]
Help! Let Me Out Of This Damned City
Posted in Uncategorized on April 9, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
If only I could so live and so serve the world that after me there should never again be birds in cages.
- Isak Dinesen (pen name of Karen Blixen), author (1885-1962)
Is she really concerned about birds in cages or is this a metaphor for something much larger? Both could be true at once.
Birds are kept in [...]
Will Your Life Be Worth Living Past Age 65?
Posted in Human Nature on April 8, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
- Leo Tolstoy
Much as I would like to agree with Mr. Tolstoy, this observation is not so universally true today as it was in the past.
Many members of the Baby Boomer generation that made individuality more of a hallmark than any generation before them had [...]
An Explanation for Teenage Rebellion
Posted in Human Nature on April 7, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Be good and you will be lonesome.
- Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910)
It’s a shame that this quote was taken out of context (I don’t have access to its original material source). Mark Twain embedded life lessons or observations about human behaviour in just about every story he told.
To adults this seems like an observation [...]
The Violent Proselytizers Are Winning
Posted in Human Nature on April 6, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps, for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are and what they ought to be.
- William Hazlitt
That quote is not true, strictly speaking, for these emotions are known to be expressed by other primates. But the point is well [...]
