“What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.”
- Abraham Lincoln

“A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle.”
- Benjamin Franklin

“It is well to remember that the entire population of the universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others.”
- Andrew J. Holmes

“Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple.”
- Barry Switzer

“When science discovers the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed to find they are not it.”
- Bernard Baily

“When someone sings his own praises, he always gets the tune too high.”
- Mary H. Waldrip

“None are so empty as those who are full of themselves.”
- Benjamin Whichhcote

“He was like a rooster who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow.”
- George Eliot

“If I had any humility I would be perfect.”
- Ted Turner

“Don’t be humble; you’re not that great.”
- Golda Meir

“I am no more humble than my talents require.”
- Oscar Levant

“Only the penitent man will pass…the penitent man is humble, the penitent man kneels before God.”
- Dr. Jones, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

“Oh yeah? Well, I’m twice as humble as you!”
- Linus to Charlie Brown

Humility

"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all
And sweetest in the gale is heard.
- Emily Dickenson

When hope dies, the killing begins. Hopelessness and brutality are just two sides of the same coin."
- Jurgen Moltmann

"One of the most important distinctions I have learned in the course of reflection on Jewish history is the difference between optimism and hope. Optimism is the belief that things will get better. Hope is the faith that, together, we can make things better. Optimism is a passive virtue; hope, an active one. It takes no courage to be an optimist, but it takes a great deal of courage to have hope."
- Jonathan Sacks

"Within the embrace of Christ’s wounds lies our only refuge, and our hope of glory only on the other side."
- Deborah Smith Douglas

Hope

“With us, there’s a saying: La esperanza muere ultima. Hope dies last. You can’t lose hope. If you lose hope, you lose everything.”
--Jessie de la Cruz

“A true Christian should have but one fear—lest he should not hope enough.”
--Walter Elliot

“There are none in the humanly “down” position so low that they cannot be lifted up by entering God’s order, and none in the humanly “up” position so high that they can disregard God’s point of view on their lives. The barren, the widow, the orphan, the eunuch, the alien, all models of human hopelessness, are fruitful and secure in God’s care.”
--Dallas Willard

“Hope without patience results in the illusion of optimism or, more terrifying, the desperation of fanaticism. The hope necessary to initiate us into the adventure must be schooled by patience if the adventure is to be sustained. Through patience, we learn to continue to hope, even though our hope seems to offer little chance of fulfillment. . . . Yet patience equally requires hope, for without hope, patience to easily accepts the world and the self for what it is, rather than what it can or should be.”
--Stanley Hauerwas

“The differences between black folk and white folk are not blood or color, and the ties that bind us are deeper than those that separate us. The common road of hope, which we all traveled, has brought us into a stronger kinship than any words, laws, or legal claims.”
--Richard Wright

Hope

"Lord, the Scripture says: “There is a time for silence and a time for speech.” Savior, teach me the silence of humility, the silence of wisdom, the silence of love, the silence of perfection, the silence that speaks without words, the silence of faith. Lord, teach me to silence my own heart that I may listen to the gentle movement of the Holy Spirit within me and sense the depths which are of God."
- Frankfurt prayer

Silence

"Live among men as if God beheld you; speak to God as if men were listening."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

"The unexamined life is not worth living."
- Socrates

Life

“Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.” – Samuel Johnson

Integrity

"Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself than of other people, nor does it mean having a low opinion of your own gifts. It means freedom from thinking about yourself one way or the other at all…The humility which consists in being a great deal occupied about yourself, and saying you are of little worth, is not Christian humility. It is one form of self-occupation and a very poor and futile one at that." - William Temple

Humility

The month of January is named after the Roman god Janus, who was pictured as a man with two faces, one looking backward and the other forward. New Year’s Day provides a valuable time to ponder the past while anticipating the future.
--Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations, & Quotes by Robert J. Morgan

"While all the promises of God are true and precious, yet it is good to take them one by one and especially commit ourselves to them. If you ask God to give you a special message for the opening year, one that will be made seasonable and real in ever exigency of the unknown future, you will be surprised how faithfully He will fulfill His Word, and how fittingly the Holy Spirit will speak to you of things to come, and anticipate the real needs and exigencies of your life."
-–A. W. Tozer, January 1, 1938

"Another year is dawning:
Dear Father, let it be,
In working or in waiting,
Another year with Thee;
Another year of progress,
Another year of praise,
Another year of proving
Thy presence all the days."
--Frances Ridley Havergal

"Not renouncing, but repeating and ratifying all my former Covenants with God, and lamenting it, that I have not lived up more closely to them; I do in the beginning of this New Year solemnly make a fresh surrender of myself, my whole self, body, soul, and spirit, to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, my Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, covenanting and promising, not in any strength of my own, for I am very weak, but in the strength of the grace of Jesus Christ, that I will endeavour this year to stand complete in all the Will of God."
-–Matthew Henry, January 1, 1705

New Year’s

“The family should be a closely knit group. The home should be a self-contained shelter of security; a kind of school where life’s basic lessons are taught; and a kind of church where God is honored; a place where wholesome recreation and simple pleasures are enjoyed.” --Billy Graham

“Home is eating cold watermelon together on a hot day in the backyard and building a snow man six months later in the same spot. Home is where I discover wonder and learn to dream. It is where I find joy.” --Bill and Nancie Carmichael

“You know what’s helped in the Swindoll home? To think of where we live as a training place, not a showplace. The home is a laboratory where experiments are tried out. It is a place where life makes up its mind. The home is a place where a child is free to think, to talk, to try out ideas. In a scene like that, God fits very comfortably into the entire conversation. And at any place where His name is inserted, it fits.” --Charles Swindoll

“Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” --Robert Frost

“Home to me is not just a roof over my head, but a dream. If I lost my home it would be like losing all my thoughts, dreams, and memories. I love everything about it, from the north of the house to the south of the house. From the east of the house to the west of the house. If a fire burned down my house, the tears would roll down my face like the water down dirty windows.” --Allison Slater, age nine

“Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is useless.” --Psalm 127:1

“When home is ruled according to God’s Word, angels might be asked to stay with us, and they would not find themselves out of their element.” --Charles H. Spurgeon

Home and Family

Nothing destroys the Christmas spirit faster than looking for a place to park.
Last year a big store in Milwaukee started its Christmas sale so early that Santa Claus wore Bermuda shorts.

Christmas is a time when everybody wants his past forgotten and his present remembered.
Christmas is when we celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace by giving our kids rockets, machine guns, atom-bomb kits, and tanks.

Keeping Christmas is good, but sharing it with others is much better.
At Christmas most parents spend more money on their children than they did on the honeymoon that started it all.

Christmas is a time for exchanging a lot of things you can’t afford for a lot of things you don’t want.

God shocked the world with a babe, not a bomb.
A father’s biggest difficulty at Christmas time is convincing the children that he is Santa Claus and his wife that he is not.

Christmas is a race to see which gives out first—your money or your feet.
What most of us want for Christmas is the day after.

Christmas

“Anger” is just one letter short of danger.

He who has a sharp tongue soon cuts his own throat.

You can’t put things across by getting cross.

Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.

The size of a man is measured by the size of the thing that makes him angry.

An angry man is seldom reasonable; a reasonable man is seldom angry.

Anyone who angers you conquers you.

When you see a married couple who’s coming down the street, the one two or three steps ahead is the one who’s mad.

Anger is a wind that blows out the lamp of the mind.

Every time you give someone a piece of your mind you make your head a little emptier.

Anger makes your mouth work faster than your mind.

The greatest remedy for anger is delay.

The difference between a prejudice and a conviction is that you an explain a conviction without getting angry.

Anger

It is always a silly thing to give advice, but to give good advice is absolutely fatal. – Oscar Wilde

We ask advice, but we mean approbation. – Charles Caleb Colton

Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t. – Erica Jong

Advice is like snow; the softer it falls the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind. – Coleridge

Distrust interested advice. –Aesop

We may give advice, but we cannot inspire conduct. – La Rouchefoucauld

In giving advice seek to help, not to please, your friend. – Solon

A never-failing way to get rid of a fellow is to tell him something for his own good. – Kin Hubbard

Giving advice isn’t as risky as people say. Few ever take it anyway. – William Feather

Advice