Sunday, April 12, 2009

Words of Wisdom

On Facebook, one of my friends from college suggested posting lists of 25 wise things we had learned in life. I made my list of 25 "words of wisdom" that I live by, and thought I would share them here as well as on Facebook. Enjoy!

1. If you do what you have always done, you'll get what you've always gotten.

2. "You'll never see a U-haul following a hearse." (wisdom from Mr. Wessing, the administrator of my high school)

3. Life is a risk. You can't steal second if you keep your foot on first.

4. "No man is a failure who has friends." (wisdom from "It's a Wonderful Life")

5. Don't let the hand you hold hold you down.

6. God doesn't call the qualified. He qualifies the called. (This one gets abused sometimes, but in the proper context, it is quite true.)

7. “For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, 'It might have been'.” (wisdom from John Greenleaf Whittier)

8. "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." (wisdom from Edmund Burke)

9. “Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.” (wisdom from Theodore Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss)

10. “Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.” (more wisdom from Theodore Geisel)

11. "Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate." (wisdom from Dr. Albert Schweitzer)

12. Each destination is also a starting point.

13. Integrity is doing the right thing, especially if no one is watching.

14. A truly ethical person is one who does more than he's required to do, and less than he's allowed to do.

15. To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.

16. Love never dies a natural death.

17. The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. It's more important to do it right than to do it first.

18. Preach the Gospel, and if necessary, use words.

19. "The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good." (wisdom from Samuel Johnson)

20. Until you find something worth dying for, you're not really living.

21. You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.

22. If you fixate too much on the destination, you'll miss out on the journey.

23. When it comes to getting things done, the world is in far greater need of bricklayers than architects.

24. "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." (wisdom from Eleanor Roosevelt - and if this one gets over-quoted, it is simply because it's true)

25. Be good to the people you meet on the way up, because you'll meet the same people on the way down.

Bonus: "Trust in God, but wear clean underwear." (wisdom from me - if you don't get it, I'd be happy to explain)

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"Passage—immediate passage! the blood burns in my veins! Away, O soul! hoist instantly the anchor!
Cut the hawsers—haul out—shake out every sail!
Have we not stood here like trees in the ground long enough?
Have we not grovell’d here long enough, eating and drinking like mere brutes?
Have we not darken’d and dazed ourselves with books long enough?

Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go, And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

O my brave soul!
O farther, farther sail!
O daring joy, but safe! Are they not all the seas of God?
O farther, farther, farther sail!"

~Walt Whitman, "Passage to India"