What we hope to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence. -Samuel Johnson
"You WILL carry out God's purpose. But it makes a difference to you whether you serve like Judas or like John." CS Lewis
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.
-JRR Tolkien
"Don't worry about what you do not understand... Worry
about what you do understand in the Bible but do not
live by." ~Corrie ten Boom
"The difference between the easy way and hard way is that the hard way works" - Terry Prachet
"Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It's the one and only thing you have to offer."~Barbara Kingsolver
In stuffing my face, I neglect my spiritual life. I turn to the refrigerator instead of turning to prayer. -Joe Carter
"We are not walking with Our Lord unless we are spontaneously depriving ourselves of many things that our whims, vanity, pleasure or self-interest clamour for. Not a single day should pass that has not been seasoned with the salt and grace of mortification; and, please get rid of the idea that you would then be miserable. What a sad little happiness you will have if you don't learn to overcome yourself, if you let your passions and fancies dominate and crush you, instead of courageously taking up your cross!" (Friends of God, 129) - St. JosemarĂa Escrivá
"Years ago, in an interview in Saturday Review, novelist Elmore Leonard was asked what made his novels so successful. Here is a guy who has written at least a dozen bestsellers, and has kept up his success for a couple decades, so I was really focused on his answer. It was brilliant in its simplicity: 'I tend to leave out the parts people skip.'" - unknown columnist.
The only thing I would add to this, as neither a wise apostle nor a zealous reformer, is that I am learning something very valuable from Luther as my young children get a little older (the oldest is approaching double digits). It is very tempting for me to think that I have completed my job as a Christian father when I have taught my kids how to be good. I think it is literally a temptation: It would be a parental sin, a sin of the foolish variety, to launch my children into adulthood armed with nothing but the advice not to sin. What they really need is the knowledge of how to deal with sin and guilt as they all-too-predictably acquire it. I don’t want them to be blindsided by the fact that they are sinners, or uninformed about what to do with consciences that rightly condemn them. They need to learn the Christian skill of taking it to God, of walking in the light, of believing Christ boldly, rejoicing, and praying boldly. –Fred Sanders
4 comments:
Great quotes, thanks for sharing them!
I consider that Tolkien quote as instrumental in my conversion to Christianity. I can still remember vividly when I came across it when I first read the series about 7 years ago. It made something click inside of me that totally turned a corner in what I was thinking and where I was willing to look for truth.
I like these quotes. Listen to David Wilcox's song "Show the Way"-- I'm sure you'll have a quote in there you'll love, too.
Annie
LOVE than Leonard quote. Even some of my favorite authors don't follow that one -- Sayers' insanely complicated puzzles, Tolkien's interminable descriptions of a stretch of grass, etc. Sometimes slogging through (or even reading around) that kind of thing is still very worth it, but I know I've had "fun" reading a book if the thought "Oh, not more of THAT" never crossed my mind during the whole thing.
Annie, I finally went and listened to the Wilcox song - sorry it took so long. I'm trying to decide if I like it or not . . . it's almost "felix culpa" ("happy fall" theology - or, "it's good evil happens because then good can happen to fix it"), which I don't like . . . but I do like the part about it looking like a close call, with the hero almost too late . . . but not because love set it up that way, but because that was the only way that it DID happen . . . oh dear, I'm too tired and tangled to say what I mean right now. But I listened to it and now I'm thinking about it and thank you or pointing me in Wilcox's direction, because he's certainly thought-provoking.
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