Thoughts from People Smarter than Me

I am a ‘quote’ person. If you aren’t, you won’t like this page very much. If you like quotes, check back often as I’ll be adding new ones from time to time!

It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all. - Laura Ingalls Wilder

I have been driven to my knees many times by the overwhelming conviction that I had no place else to go!
~Abraham Lincoln

“You will never know how much you believe something until it is a matter of life and death. If you think of this world as a place intended simply for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable: think of it as a place of training and correction and it’s not so bad.” ~ C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock

“Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning. . .” ~C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

‘The Rich must live more simply so that the Poor may simply live.’ ~Gandhi

‘Seven social sins: politics without principles, wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice.’ ~ Gandhi

‘I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. The materialism of affluent Christian countries appears to contradict the claims of Jesus Christ that says it’s not possible to worship both Mammon and God at the same time’ ~ Gandhi

‘I submit to you that if a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.’ ~Martin Luther King Jr.

‘The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction…. The chain reaction of evil — hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars — must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.’ ~ Martin Luther King Jr., ‘Strength to Love’ (1963)

‘All truly wise thoughts have been thoughts already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience.’ ~Goethe

‘When I first read the scriptures, to me they seemed quite unworthy of comparison with stately prose, because I had too much conciet to accept their simplicity and not enough insight to penetrate their depths.’ ~Augustine

‘ Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind. With respect to luxuries and comforts, the wisest have even lived a more simple and meagre life than the poor.’ ~Henry David Thoreau

‘When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everyone will respect you.’ ~Lao-Tzu