#s

One needs no particular talent to be polite. On the contrary, being nice is what's left when you've failed at everything else. ↗

— Diane Setterfield

#talent

It is not enough to receive support, no matter, how needed it may be. It is fundamental to know how to receive this support and ensure that its result is exponential. ↗

— Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao

#ensure #exponential #fundamental #how #know

Do I hear a challenge?” she whispers, “Oh, Carlos. You know I can’t resist a challenge. ↗

— Simone Elkeles

#challenge #kiara-westford #resistance

The cure for anything is salt water - tears, sweat, or the sea. ↗

— Isak Dinesen

#sadness #the-sea #water #tears

When one person is missing the whole world seems empty. ↗

— Pat Schweibert

#loss #mourning #tears

I knew that somewhere God was laughing. He had taken the other half of my heart, the one person who knew me better than I knew myself, and He had done what nothing else could do. By bringing us together, He had set into motion the one thing that could tear us apart. ↗

— Jodi Picoult

#loss #tears

No sooner do we believe that God loves us than there is an impulse to believe that He does so, not because He is Love, but because we are intrinsically lovable. The Pagans obeyed this impulse unabashed; a good man was "dear to the gods" because he was good. We, being better taught, resort to subterfuge. Far be it from us to think that we have virtues for which God could love us. But then, how magnificently we have repented! As Bunyan says, describing his first and illusory conversion, "I thought there was no man in England that pleased God better than I." Beaten out of this, we next offer our own humility to God's admiration. Surely He'll like that? Or if not that, our clear-sighted and humble recognition that we still lack humility. Thus, depth beneath depth and subtlety within subtelty, there remains some lingering idea of our own, our very own attractiveness. It is easy to acknowledge, but almost impossible to realize for long, that we are mirrors whose brightness, if we are bright, is wholly derived from the sun that shines upon us. Surely we must have a little--however little--native luminosity? Surely we can't be quite creatures? - The Four Loves ↗

— C.S. Lewis

#humility #love

Know when to speak - for many times it brings danger, to give the best advice to kings. ↗

— Robert Herrick

#best #brings #danger #give #kings

There is indeed a certain sense of gratification when we do a good deed that gives us inward satisfaction, and a generous pride that accompanies a good conscience…These testimonies of a good conscience are pleasant; and such a natural pleasure is very beneficial to us; it is the only payment that can never fail. “On Repentance ↗

— Michel de Montaigne

#service #nature

Mere philosophy will not satisfy us. We cannot reach the goal by mere words alone. Without practice, nothing can be achieved. (3) ↗

— Swami Satchidananda

#practice #satisfaction #satisfaction