That is the hardest thing of all. It is much harder to judge yourself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself, it’s because you’re truly a wise man. – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
You’ve got to show the world who you are before it tells you. Otherwise you become victim to someone you’re not. – Chris Colfer
The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do. – Walter Bagehot
Til shade is gone,
til water is gone
Into the shadow with teeth bared
Screaming defiance with the last breath
To spit in Sightblinder’s eye on the Last Day. – Robert Jordan
Having an eye for beauty isn’t the same thing as a weakness…except possibly when it comes to you. – Suzanne Collins
Do no harm & leave the world a better place than you found it. – Patricia Cornwell
Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times. – Aeschylus
Each of us has the right and the responsibility to assess the roads which lie ahead, and those over which we have traveled, and if the future road looms ominous or unpromising, and the roads back uninviting, then we need to gather our resolve and, carrying only the necessary baggage, step off that road into another direction. If the new choice is also unpalatable, without embarrassment, we must be ready to change that as well. – Maya Angelou
Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies. – Nelson Mandela
Our opportunities to give of ourselves are indeed limitless, but they are also perishable. There are hearts to gladden. There are kind words to say. There are gifts to be given. There are deeds to be done. There are souls to be saved.
As we remember that “when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God,” (Mosiah 2:17) we will not find ourselves in the unenviable position of Jacob Marley’s ghost, who spoke to Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens’s immortal “Christmas Carol.” Marley spoke sadly of opportunities lost. Said he: ‘Not to know that any Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness. Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused! Yet such was I! Oh! such was I!’
Marley added: ‘Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode? Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me!’
Fortunately, as we know, Ebenezer Scrooge changed his life for the better. I love his line, ‘I am not the man I was.’
Why is Dickens’ “Christmas Carol” so popular? Why is it ever new? I personally feel it is inspired of God. It brings out the best within human nature. It gives hope. It motivates change. We can turn from the paths which would lead us down and, with a song in our hearts, follow a star and walk toward the light. We can quicken our step, bolster our courage, and bask in the sunlight of truth. We can hear more clearly the laughter of little children. We can dry the tear of the weeping. We can comfort the dying by sharing the promise of eternal life. If we lift one weary hand which hangs down, if we bring peace to one struggling soul, if we give as did the Master, we can—by showing the way—become a guiding star for some lost mariner. – Thomas S. Monson
The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do. – Walter Bagehot
