A better man

Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man. - Benjamin Franklin

I sent a letter

I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it. - Mark Twain

The gift of love

Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. -  Benjamin Franklin

Office parties

What I don't like about office Christmas parties is looking for a job the next day. - Phyllis Diller 

Twain on New Year's

 New Year's is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls and humbug resolutions. - Mark Twain

How long?

"How long does getting thin take?" asked Pooh, anxiously. – A.A. Milne

Three for Thee

What does the poor man do at the rich man’s door, the sick man in the presence of his physician, the thirsty man at a limpid stream? What they do, I do before the Eucharistic God. I pray. I adore. I love. -St. Francis


"What self denial! What self abasement! What self emptying! He, whom no infinitudes can hold, is contained within infant’s age, and infant’s form. Can it be, that the great ‘I AM THAT I AM’ shrinks into our flesh?"  - Henry Law 


For the Christ-child who comes is the Master of all; No palace too great, no cottage too small.  - Phillips Brooks

What is your business?

"Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!" - Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol)

Something to give to the world

Everyone on this earth should believe, amid whatever madness or moral failure, that his life and temperament have some object on the earth. Everyone on the earth should believe that he has something to give to the world which cannot otherwise be given. - Chesterton

The power of friendship

Friendship doubles our joy and divides our grief.  - Swedish Proverb

Putting more in

A gentleman is one who puts more into the world than he takes out. - George Bernard Shaw

Complete faith & confidence

Have no fear of moving into the unknown. Simply step out fearlessly knowing that I am with you, therefore no harm can befall you; all is very, very well. Do this in complete faith and confidence. - Pope John Paul II

Thoughts on shopping

Shopping:  The fine art of acquiring things you don't need with money you don't have.  - Author Unknown

3 for the Blessed Mother

She is more Mother than Queen. --Saint Therese of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church


From Mary we learn to surrender to God's Will in all things. From Mary we learn to trust even when all hope seems gone. From Mary we learn to love Christ her Son and the Son of God! - Pope John Paul II

All my own perception of beauty both in majesty and simplicity is founded upon Our Lady. - J.R.R. Tolkien


This one occurs in another blog posting, but it is so good I will add it again.
If you ever feel distressed during your day — call upon our Lady — just say this simple prayer: 'Mary, Mother of Jesus, please be a mother to me now.' I must admit — this prayer has never failed me. --Blessed Mother Teresa 

The Heart & Unity

Love is the only reality and it is not a mere sentiment. It is the ultimate truth that lies at the heart of creation. - Rabindranath Tagore


Even if a unity of faith is not possible, a unity of love is.  - Hans Urs von Balthasar

A healthy attitude

Take your work seriously and yourself lightly. - Bob Nelson

Less is more

I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be. - Thomas Jefferson

Treat them greatly

Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Community

Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing.  - Rollo May

Joy in all things

Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. - Mother Teresa



It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge. - Albert Einstein



Christ is the Teacher who awakens in all of us that joy by which we can lead others to Him.

Choose wisely

Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely.  - Unknown

Woven into the lives of others

What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others. - Pericles

Dragons can be beaten

Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten. -- G. K. Chesterton

Always learning

Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn. - Benjamin Franklin

Time changes everything

If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 60 years ago, a liberal 30 years ago and a racist today. - Thomas Sowell

Finding the paradox & making an exception

I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love. - Mother Teresa


Yesterday's forgotten quote


I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception. - Groucho Marx

For our Plant Manager who turned 50 today.

Middle age: Later than you think, and sooner than you expected.

Eating raw meat

If there hadn't been women we'd still be squatting in a cave eating raw meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our girlfriends. - Orson Welles

Better than a cloak

Love keeps the cold out better than a cloak. - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Winter exercises

I have never taken any exercise except sleeping and resting. - Mark Twain

As alert as the conscience

A democratic government is only as strong as the alert conscience of its people. - Charles W. Tobey

Sent from my iPhone

Longing & waiting

Every year we celebrate the holy season of Advent, O God. Every year we pray those beautiful prayers of longing and waiting, and sing those lovely songs of hope and promise. - Karl Rahner

YESTERDAY'S FORGOTTEN QUOTE


To give thanks in solitude is enough. Thanksgiving has wings and goes where it must go. Your prayer knows much more about it than you do.- Victor Hugo

Let's call it research

If men liked shopping, they'd call it research. - Cynthia Nelms

With great love

We cannot do great things on this Earth, only small things with great love. - Mother Teresa

Shine for all the world to see

How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world. - William Shakespeare

Hands down

If you think Independence Day is America's defining holiday, think again. Thanksgiving deserves that title, hands-down. - Tony Snow

A merry feast

Small cheer and great welcome make a merry feast.  -William Shakespeare

Not the end of the world kiddo

Youth is the period in which a man can be hopeless. The end of every episode is the end of the world. But the power of hoping through everything, the knowledge that the soul survives its adventures, that great inspiration comes to the middle-aged. - Gilbert K. Chesterton

Only sick

When I was a boy the Dead Sea was only sick. - George Burns

Only an intellectual

Socialism, in general, has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it. - Thomas Sowell

Saving grace of humor

That is the saving grace of humor, if you fail no one is laughing at you. - A. Whitney Brown

Character dependent

A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user. - Theodore Roosevelt

The Scheme of things

It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love. This is how the whole scheme of things works. All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get. - Confucius

Never lose it

Never lose a holy curiosity. Albert Einstein

Play better

You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else. - Albert Einstein

Fairy Tales matter

If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales. —Albert Einstein

The weekend

Youth is like a long weekend on Friday night. Middle age is like a long weekend on Monday afternoon. - Richard Nelson Bolles

Join a club

I have a mind to join a club and beat you over the head with it. - Groucho Marx

Just the facts maam

All media exist to invest our lives with artificial perceptions and arbitrary values. - Marshall McLuhan

Neither saint nor scum

I ain’t such a saint that I can promise to risk my life for strangers. Neither am I scum enough to sit quietly by while people are getting hurt before my eyes. - Ichigo Kurasaki

Better things ahead

Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind. - C. S. Lewis

From one room to another & yesterday's missed quote

Death is no more than passing from one room into another. But there's a difference for me, you know. Because in that other room I shall be able to see. - Helen Keller



Every true prayer is a prayer of the Church; by means of that prayer the Church prays, since it is the Holy Spirit living in the Church, Who in every single soul 'prays in us with unspeakable groanings'. - Edith Stein

Any road will do

If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there. - Lewis Carroll

Don't be sad

Don't be sad, we shall meet again in Paradise. - St. Thomas Aquinas

Nowhere else to go

I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.  ~ Abraham Lincoln

Sinner to Saint

God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: he makes saints out of sinners. - Soren Kierkegaard

BOO!

On Halloween, the parents sent their kids out looking like me. - Rodney Dangerfield

Crop failure

Most of us spend the first six days of each week sowing wild oats; then we go to church on Sunday and pray for a crop failure. -  Fred Allen

Trio on Winning

The person that said winning isn't everything, never won anything. - Mia Hamm


Don't give up at half time. Concentrate on winning the second half. - Paul Bryant


Boom, crush. Night, losers. Winning, duh. - Charlie Sheen

Good performer

Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer. - Ted Williams

Too many pills?

Never under any circumstances take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night. - Dave Barry

Two from Tagore

When I stand before thee at the day's end, thou shalt see my scars and know that I had my wounds and also my healing. 


Music fills the infinite between two souls. This has been muffled by the mist of our daily habits.  - Rabindranath Tagore

Our Motto

Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto. - Thomas Jefferson

Before last century this was our motto and national policy, however with World War I and growing American power, we have found ourselves drawn more and more into world politics. While I want to say that is good, it is not without cost.

Sharpening your vision

As selfishness and complaint pervert the mind, so love with its joy clears and sharpens the vision.  - Helen Keller 

Mother of effort

Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Doubled by wonder

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder. - Gilbert K. Chesterton

Feelings, nothing more than feelings. . .

It's surprising how many persons go through life without ever recognizing that their feelings toward other people are largely determined by their feelings toward themselves, and if you're not comfortable within yourself, you can't be comfortable with others. - Sydney J. Harris

Where do you find joy?

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy. - Rabindranath Tagore

Continual Christmas

A good conscience is a continual Christmas. - Benjamin Franklin

Adding color

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.  - Rabindranath Tagore 

On Valium

Cricket is basically baseball on Valium.  - Robin Williams 

Sanity??

Heh sanity? Sorry, I don’t recall ever having anything like that.  - Kenpachi Zaraki

Gratitude leads to beauty

The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude. 
- Friedrich Nietzsche 


Some quotes and there sources never cease to surprise me. Imagine how much more gratitude there is when you have some one to thank for the beauty you encounter in life.

Say what?

The first and governing maxim in the interpretation of a statute is to discover the meaning of those who made it. --James Wilson

Play Ball!

There are three types of baseball players: those who make it happen, those who watch it happen, and those who wonder what happens.  - Tommy Lasorda 


St. Louis has pennant fever and is hoping the Cards go to the World Series, right now I am in highlight mode and watch them. Glad they're doing well, just not able to watch a lot of the game just yet.

Family Tree

I looked up my family tree and found out I was the sap. - Rodney Dangerfield 

Let's not bicker about who killed who

You should always tell your opponent your name before you beat him, as a courtesy. Somone who dies in battle should want to at least know who killed him. - Ikkaku to Renji

Leaves & roots

Change your opinions, keep to your principles; change your leaves, keep intact your roots. - Victor Hugo 

Autumn's beauty

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.  ~Albert Camus

Back Home

A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.  - Benjamin Franklin 


The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home. - Confucius 

Humble & angelic

It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels. - St. Augustine


I'll be away on Retreat the rest of the week and will return to regular posting this coming Saturday.

Flower power from the Little Flower

I understood that every flower created by Him is beautiful, that the brilliance of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not lessen the perfume of the violet or the sweet simplicity of the daisy. I understood that if all the lowly flowers wished to be roses, nature would no longer be enamelled with lovely hues. And so it is in the world of souls, Our lord's living garden.  -St. Therese de Lisieux 

Outta my way

When you are on fire, people WILL get out of your way. - Richard Pryor

Tick-tock

You may delay, but time will not.  - Benjamin Franklin 

Peter & Paul

A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.  - George Bernard Shaw 

Old doctors

My doctor tells me I should start slowing it down - but there are more old drunks than there are old doctors so let's all have another round.  - Willie Nelson


Today's quote honors Sts. Cosmas & Damian, twin brothers and physicians.

The man in the mirror

One thing that's happened to me is I've been around a long time and I've played a lot of villains and so forth. I think it had to do with, well one thing is that I looked younger than I was for a long time. Now I think I'm suddenly starting to play people's father. - Christopher Walken 

You're Special - - or not

There are a billion people in China. It's not easy to be an individual in a crowd of more than a billion people. Think of it. More than a BILLION people. That means even if you're a one-in-a-million type of guy, there are still a thousand guys exactly like you. - A. Whitney Brown

A diplomat

A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age. - Robert Frost

Explorers HO!

I am not a glutton - I am an explorer of food.  ~Erma Bombeck

The beginning

There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning. - Louis L'Amour

Honesty is the best policy

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom. - Thomas Jefferson

It's a lazy quote from the bottom of the page.  Too many other things to do at the moment.

ARR! Talk like a pirate!

Suddenly you're like a pirate, you're 65 years old and you've got an earring.  - Fred Willard



Since I missed Saturday, consider this my atonement and and an invitation to talk like a pirate as we celebrate http://www.talklikeapirate.com/

Once is enough

You only live once - but if you work it right,  once is enough. -  Joe E. Lewis

Listen to me now, believe me later.

Great boasters, little doers. - French Proverb

Awww, too bad

There is nothing like the sight of an enemy down on his luck. - Euripides

Mercy & Justice

Children are innocent and love justice, while most adults are wicked and prefer mercy. - G. K. Chesterton

Greeks bearing gifts

Things forbidden have a secret charm. - Greek Proverb

Wise words for today

Never spend your money before you have it. - Thomas Jefferson

Too bad we don't follow his advice personally and politically. It's always easy to spend someone else's money or money that you didn't earn.

Surprise!

The wicked are always surprised to find that the good can be clever. - Luc de Clapiers de Vanvenargues

In an hour

A guest sees more in an hour than the host in a year . - Polish Proverb

Fated

I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in the fate that falls on men unless they act. - G. K. Chesterton

Undrstanding

The best educated human being is the one who understands most about the life in which he is placed. - Helen Keller

I have yet to read anything by Helen Keller, but everything I come across one of her quotes I am always impressed by her wisdom and grasp of the human situation.

Mom & Pop

If poverty is the mother of crime, stupidity is its father. - Jean de La Bruyere

The festival & cruise

Life is a festival only to the wise. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I would add that it is a festival to those who have faith and believe in something greater than themselves or the given moment. Rather than worry about the existential "meaning of life", just accept that life does have meaning and we are privileged to contribute our small part to its overall mystery.

Old and young, we are all on our last cruise. - Robert Louis Stevenson

OUCH!  A bit grim given the previous quote, but his point is no less true.  SO, enjoy the cruise for as long as it goes.

This weeks quotes come to you from The Most Brilliant Thoughts of All Time .  A bit pretentious in title, but a good collection of quotes.

Work worth doing

Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. - Theodore Roosevelt


Happy Labor Day to all!   I hope it is relaxing and enjoyable.

Mirror, mirror on the wall

The greatest of faults . . . is to be conscious of none. - Thomas Carlyle

Contradiction in terms

Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die. - Chesterton

Listening more closely

When I don't like a piece of music, I make it a point of listening more closely. - Florent Schmitt

Unlearning

The chief object of education is not to learn things but to unlearn things. - Chesterton

You can't fix stupid

Many learned people have read themselves stupid. - Arthur Schopenhauer

Silence

Silence is more eloquent that words. - Thomas Carlyle

Our equals

We who are liberal and progressive know that the poor are our equals in every sense except that of being equal to us. - Lionel Trilling

Perhaps it's time to delve into Oxymorinica and pull some fun quotes from that book this week.

Funnel to your stomach

Let your head be more than a funnel to your stomach.- German Proverb

Good friends

The older you get, the tougher it is to lose weight, because by then your body and your fat are really good friends. - Unknown

I remember seeing this funny little quote a few year back on a sign in someone's kitchen.

Dinner for four

My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people. - Orson Welles 

Eat what you like

Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.  - Mark Twain

But I go marching on

Everything I eat has been proved by some doctor or other to be a deadly poison, and everything I don't eat has been proved to be indispensable for life.  But I go marching on.   -George Bernard Shaw

Soup!

Worries go down better with soup.  -Jewish Proverb


While I don't plan on making this a week of food quotes, it might just become that.

Just grow old

I guess I don’t so much mind being old, as I mind being fat and old. - Ben Franklin


Well I start a diet today. We'll see if this diet is more successful than past diets. While I don't feel all that old, I sadly have a head start on the fat part of Franklin's musing on aging.

You can only give what you possess

When you run into someone who is disagreeable to others, you may be sure he is uncomfortable with himself; the amount of pain we inflict upon others is directly proportional to the amount we feel within us. - Sydney J. Harris

Leaving wiggle room

The most important thing in an argument, next to being right, is to leave an escape hatch for your opponent, so that he can gracefully swing over to your side without too much apparent loss of face. - Sydney J. Harris

A fanatic

A fanatic is a person who consciously over compensates a secret doubt. - Aldous Huxley

You are here

I have an existential map. It has "You are here" written all over it. - Steven Wright # 961 of (The 2,548 Best Things Anybody Ever Said) complied by Robert Byrne

Time to use RAID

Cockroaches and socialites are the only things that can stay up all night and eat anything. - Herb Caen  #1,578 of (The 2,548 Best Things Anybody Ever Said) complied by Robert Byrne

Formula of Success

The  most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people. - Theodore Roosevelt. (Taken from the Forbes Leadership Library: Thoughts on Success)

Hope

In every Winter's heart there is a quivering Spring. And behind the veil of each night there is a smiling dawn. - Kahlil Gibran

The sky is the limit

And, isn't sanity really just a one-trick pony anyway? I mean all you get is one trick, rational thinking, but when you're good and crazy, oooh, oooh, oooh, the sky is the limit. - The Tick (TV Animated Series)

Those things happen once in a while

I didn't particularly feel like being arrested, so I argued with the soldiers a bit. Several of them died during the argument - those things happen once in a while. Unfortunately, one of the casualties was Taur Urgas' oldest son. The king of the Murgos took it personally. He's very narrow-minded sometimes. - Silk

Anger & Passion

"Anger is just anger. It isn't good. It isn't bad. It just is. What you do with it is what matters. It's like anything else. You can use it to build or to destroy. You just have to make the choice."

"Constructive anger", the demon said, "her voice dripping sarcasm."

"Also known as passion", I said quietly. "Passion has overthrown tyrants and freed prisoners and slaves. Passion has brought justice where there was savagery. Passion has created freedom where there was nothing but fear. Passion has helped souls rise from the ashes of their horrible lives and build something better, stronger, more beautiful." - Harry Dresden

Only one

There is only one Lord of the Ring, only one who can bend it to his will. And he does not share power. - Gandalf (The Lord of the Rings) 

Sometimes I sleep

Are you always a smart-ass? Nope, sometimes I sleep.  - Harry Dresden (From Blood Rites)

Somehow immoral

Usually, when I need a boat I steal one. Using one of my own seems immoral somehow. - Silk (From the Belgariad Series)

Who needs that?

Common sense? Worthless things like those I haven't had for as long as I can remember! - Kenpachi Zaraki from the Bleach Series. 

I started watching the series earlier in the year. I have to say its become one of my favorite things to watch in my free time. It has almost as many characters to track as the Dresden Files. Maybe this week will have to be imaginary-fictional character quotes. Hmmm 

The ideal life

Good books, good friends and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life. - Mark Twain   (While he admittedly left God out of the factoring, those three elements do contribute to a more ideal life.  Add good faith/religion/spirituality to the mix and I would say it was ideal.)

The Inexpressible

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. - Aldous Huxley

Entitlement Triple Header

Though beauty gives you a weird sense of entitlement, it's rather frightening and threatening to have others ascribe such importance to something you know you're just renting for a while. - Candice Bergen   


I think fame and notoriety suffer from the same inflated importance in today's world.

One of the consequences of such notions of "entitlement" is that people who have contributed nothing to society feel that society owes them something, apparently just for being nice enough to grace us with their presence. - Thomas Sowell


You mean society doesn't?


Entitlement and privilege corrupt. - Vice Admiral James Stockdale


Anytime one gets privilege they better have a friend at hand to keep them humble and rooted in reality, otherwise corruption seems inevitable. 

Work & Spend

Get to know two things about a man - how he earns his money and how he spends it - and you have the clue to his character, for you have a searchlight that shows up the inmost recesses of his soul. - Robert James McCraken  Forbes Leadership Library - Thoughts on Prosperity

The Forbes Library is a great collection of little books of quotes on various topics. While there might not be an abundance of funny quotes, there are some really great insightful quotes in the collection of books.

Political Correctness

Political correctness is just tyranny with manners. - Charlton Heston

Being politically correct mean always having to say you're sorry. - Charles Osgood

Both quotes are taken from the Big Curmudgeon, a bitter but fun read in small doses.

Ancient Chinese Secret

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's own ignorance. - Confucius  (From Oxymoronica)

Perhaps our political leaders could benefit from this insight. Well, to be honest, who wouldn't benefit from a little more humility about their certainty and insight.

Robin Williams

A fellow with the inventiveness of Albert Einstein but the attention span of Daffy Duck. - Tom Shales (The Book of Poisonous Quotes)

I like a lot of Robin Williams movies, but I fear that he often falls into that categories of actors/comedians who just play themselves in various roles.

Not because of animals

I am not a vegetarian because I love animals; I am a vegetarian because I hate plants. - A. Whitney Brown

Regarding Nathaniel Hawthorne

He never seemed to be doing anything, and yet he did not like to be disturbed at it. - John Greenleaf Whittier (Taken from The Book of Poisonous Quotes)

Seasoned with laughter

With all the fearful strain that is upon me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die. -Abraham Lincoln (Remark to a cabinet member on why he was reading a book of humor)

Life is a song

Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.  ~Ronald Reagan

The wisdom of Mr. Handy

If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting. - Jack Handy


It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man. - Jack Handy


I believe in the making the world safe for our children, but not our children's children, because I don't think children should be having sex. - Jack Handy

Life & Cards

Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will. - Jawaharlal Nehru

Sent from my iPhone

CHEESE!

The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of 
cheese. - G. K. Chesterton


This was yesterday's funny quote at the bottom of the blog, good enough to save and post.  

Living, dying & debt

No man should be afraid to die, who hath understood what it is to live. - Thomas Fuller  (Philips' Book of Great Thoughts and Funny Sayings)

Bonus quote:

A man in debt is caught in a net. - Unknown
                                    (Philips' Book of Great Thoughts and Funny Sayings)

What does that mean for a Nation?

I'm special, like everyone else

When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other. - Eric Hoffer (Taken from Oxymoronica)

Huck Finn on conscience

It {conscience} takes up more room than all the rest of a person's insides. - Huckleberry Finn

St. Mary Magdalene

Father, Your Son first entrusted to Saint Mary Magdalene the joyful news of His Resurrection. - Opening Prayer for Mass.

Back in the fun days of the Da Vinci Code I had more discussions about this saint than any since the Blessed Mother's latest apparition.  Even very knowledgeable Catholics would ask if there was any truth to it. My stock reply was if it is true, we are completely screwed because Jesus is not God according to that belief.  Second to that,  did Jesus and the Magdalene have a "thing" going on is the persistent misconception of her life as a prostitute. Even the church is guilty of carrying water for this misconception thanks to St. Gregory the Great who misidentified the woman who washed the feet of Jesus with her tears and dried them with her hair. Could she be?  I'm sure there is a remote chance, but Mary Magdalene is always mentioned by name in the scriptures.

Yesterday's forgotten quote

If a man doesn't believe as we do, we say he is a crank, and that settles it, I mean that nowadays, because now we can't burn him. - Mark Twain (Following the equator)

I always get pinched by Twain's comments on religion, but many times they are a fair assessment of human nature.

Four Pithy Chinese Proverbs

One who is tripped by the foot can get up again, one who is tripped by the tongue may not.


More demands on oneself and few demands on others will keep resentment at bay.


In a struggle between strength and patience, patience will win.


Gems are polished by rubbing, just as men are made brilliant by trials. 


All quotes are from Best~Loved Chinese Proverbs compiled by Theodora Lau.

Keep your wits

Man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullibility, which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason and the mind becomes a wreck. --Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Smith, 1822