Advice on Human Relationships
The six most important words: "I admit I made a mistake."
The five most important words: "You did a good job."
The four most important words: "What is your opinion?"
The third most important words: "If you please."
The two most important words: "Thank you."
The least important word: "I"
Six Treasured Maxims of King George V. Buckingham Palace
Teach me to be obedient to the rules of the game;
Teach me to distinguish between sentiment and sentimentality, admiring the one and despising the other;
Teach me neither to proffer nor receive cheap praises;
If I am called upon to suffer let me be like a well-bred beast that goes away to suffer in silence;
Teach me to win, if I may; if I may not, then above all teach me to be a good loser;
Teach me neither to cry for the moon nor over spilt milk.
Passage of Faith and Trust
I believe in the sun, even if it does not shine.
I believe in love, even if I do not feel it.
I believe in God, even if I do not see Him.
~written by a young unknown Jew written on the wall of the Warsaw Ghetto.~
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"A closed hand cannot receive." ~Minister, name anon
"A KISS from my mother made me a painter." ~Benjamin West, 18th century American artist
"A man is made happier by doing things rather than by having delectable things wrapped in cellophane and laid on his knee." ~Royal Bank of Canada Monthly Letter
"Always be as straight as a ruler, as true as a set-square, as sharp as a pencil and as firm as a compass." ~Advice from an old maths teacher, TFBFG 1998
"An optimist is someone who takes the cold water thrown upon an idea, heats it with enthusiasm and then uses the steam to push ahead." ~Anon (TFBFG 1987 from CAH)
"Anyone with a sound heart can walk uphill. And the rewards are so great. A little puffing and blowing is a small price to pay for all the kingdoms of the earth and the glory of them spread at one's feet; for the exhilaration of breathing rarefied air; for being literally on top of the world."~Doreen Wallace, Author, English Lakeland
"Anyone who has strayed in youth into the wrong profession might gain immense success in another." ~Lord Beaverbrook
"Anything that can be improved is not finished." ~Manuel de Falla, Spanish Musical Maestro
"A wise man always makes more opportunities than he finds." ~Francis Bacon
"As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." ~Marianne Williamson (The Friendship Book 2014 -MPW)
"Being frustrated is disagreeable, but the real disasters of life begin when you get what you want!" ~Irving Kristel, American Writer
"Blossom by blossom spring begins." ~Swineburne
"Blossom on the plum,"Compliments are verbal gifts." ~Anon (1998/MPW)
Wild wind and merry,
Leaves upon the cherry
And one swallow came." ~Norah Hopper, "March"
"Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.' ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff of which life is made." ~Benjamin Franklin, 18th century great American statesman
"Duty makes us do things well, but love makes us do them beautifully."~ Rev. Phillips Brooks, American Preacher
"Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught." ~Oscar Wilde
"Education is not just a matter of 3 R's, but of the 3 H's - Head, Hand and Heart." ~ Dr. James Emmanuel Kwegyir Aggrey (TFBFG 1987 from Carol Ann Hewer)
"Everyone has inside them a piece of good news. The good news is you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!" ~Anne Frank, the Friendship Book 2014 (MPW)
"Faith is the art of holding on to what your reason has once accepted-in spite of your changing moods." ~C. S. Lewis
"Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities may have crept in: forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day: begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be worried over your old nonsense. This day is all that is good and fair. It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
"For me the Christian life is a way, a pilgrimage, a journey, a campaign, a search, a struggle - with all the exhilaration and sorrow, all the joy and despair that characterise such journeys." ~Bishop Richard Holloway
"For what we are about to receive may the Lord make us truly thankful." ~small boy (hospital patient)
"Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before." ~St Paul.
"Friendship, a dear balm - whose coming is as light and music are." ~Shelley, Poet
"Friendship is the breathing rose, with sweets in every fold." ~Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1998/mpw
"Gentleness is the gift of the gods; nothing is so strong as gentleness, and nothing is so gentle as real strength." ~Unattributed (TFBFG 1987 - CAH)
"Growing old is no more than a bad habit which a busy man has no time to form." ~Andre Maurois, French Author; The Friendship Book 1981 of Francis Gay
"Happiness is like manna. It is to be gathered and enjoyed every day; it will not keep; it cannot be accumulated; nor need we go out of ourselves or into remote places to gather it, since it is rained down from heaven at our doors, or rather withing them." ~Great Thoughts
"Have charity, have patience, have mercy. Never bring a human being, however silly, ignorant or weak - above all any child - to shame and confusion of face. Never confound any human soul in the hour of its weakness." ~Rev. Charles Kingsley, Author, The Water Babies, Westward Ho
"Having grandchildren doesn't make you feel old. It keeps you young!" ~Anon
"He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much; who has gained the respect of intelligent men, and the love of little children; who has left the world better than he found it; who has never lacked appreciation of earth's beauty, or failed to express it; who has always looked for the best in others and given the best he had; whose life is an inspiration, whose memory a benediction." ~from William Morton's diary (Morton was a young Australian Army Captain killed in action in 1917)
"He loved birds and green places and the wind on the heath, and saw the brightness of the skirts of God." ~Epitaph written on William Henry Hudson grave on Sussex Downs (1987/cah)
"He not only had the peace which passeth all understanding, but the peace which passeth all misunderstanding." ~Dr. Stanley Jones on Dr. George Carver (American Christian Leader and Agricultural Scientist). [1987/cah]
"Here was a people living in the most rigorous climate in the world, in the most depressing surroundings imaginable...shivering in their tents in the autumn, fighting the recurring blizzard in the winter, toiling and moiling fifteen hours a day merely in order to get food and stay alive. Huddling in their igloos through this interminable night, they ought to have been melancholy me...instead, they were a cheerful people, always laughing, never weary of laughter." ~Gontran de Poncin
"I always believed in putting my right side inside, not my right side outside." ~Anon Yorkshire Lady
"I am grateful for all my problems. As each of them was overcome I became stronger and more able to meet those yet to come. I grew on all my difficulties." ~James C Penney, American, 1875-1972
"I died in my shell" ~Anon, Autobiography of a chicken, The Friendship Book of Francis Gay 1981
"I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself now and then in finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." ~Sir Isaac Newton
"I have always lived by the philosophy that if the sea is smooth, it will get rough; if it is rough, it will get smooth. But with a good ship you always ride it out." ~Anon
"I have walked with people whose eyes are full of light, but who see nothing in wood, sea or sky, nothing in the city streets, nothing in books. What a witless masquerade is this seeing! It were far better to sail for ever in the night of blindness, with sense and feeling and mind, than to be thus content with the mere act of seeing. They have the sunset, the morning skies, the purple distant hills, yet their souls voyage through this enchanted world with a barren state." ~Helen Keller, The World I Live
"I often remind myself never to spend too long looking at those with more than myself, but to cast a glance, instead, at those, with less." ~Agnes Innes, Tokoroa, New Zealand
"I judge a man not by what he says or does but by what he wants." ~Taylor Caldwell, (Gamaliel- Jewish Council from the book Judas)
"If I want my tools to do a good job for me I have to keep 'em sharp. It's the same with my mind. I want to keep it sharp, too!" ~Old George (Gardening Friend, 1998)
"If you can find the courage to be yourself, to be the person God intended you to be, you'll come out all right." ~Anon
"If you feel no love, sit still." ~George Eliot (1987/cah)
"If you see anything worthy of praise, speak of it. Even if you cannot do a worthy deed yourself, commend one who does. Praise is a power for good: both man and God prize it. The best worker, if his fellows fail to praise, fails doing as well as he can." ~Anon
"If you will, you may succeed in wonderful things. Look up. Try again." ~Thomas Beecham (Pharmachist), TFBFG 1987
"In Decathlon you don't need cheers, deadlines, or even anyone to watch you perform. It's like religion, or painting or poetry. There's enough satisfaction in just doing it." ~William Toomey, American Track and Field Athlete, 1968 Olympics Gold Medalist
"In many ways, the sink is the very heart of the home." ~Mrs Ritchie, Bridge of Don, Aberdeen.
"It is a great mistake for men to give up paying compliments, for when they give up saying what is charming, they give up thinking what is charming." ~Oscar Wilde, 1998/mpw
"It's amazing what you can accomplish on your knees." ~Mary (Friend)
"fit is no use doing just what we like; we have got to like what we do." ~Winston Churchill, 1998
"It's not the nightingales which bring the smile; it's the smile that brings the nightingales." ~Dr. F. W. Boreham on popular war-time song (...when you turned and smiled at me/A nightingale sang in Berkely Square) TFBFG -1987/cah
"It is the soul, the mind, which are the true measures of our worth." ~Dr Isaac Watts, Hymn Writer (1983)
"It takes us about four years to learn to speak--and the other three-score to learn not to." ~Anon (1984)
"Keep your eyes open to your mercies. The man who forgets to be grateful has fallen asleep in life."~ Robert Louis Stevenson
"Kindness often heals terrible wounds."~Ancient Greek Philosopher.
"Let nothing disturb thee,"Let not that happen which I wish, but that which is right." ~Menander, Greek Writer
Let nothing affright thee,
All passeth away,
God alone will stay,
Patience obtaineth all things."
~St Augustine
"Let's not burden our remembrance with a heaviness that's gone."~Shakespeare
"Life does not begin or stop at any age. It goes on from our first day to our last."~George Sava, author
"Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on." ~Samuel Butler, 1998/mpw
"Life is made up, not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little things, in which smiles and kindnesses and small obligations given habitually, are what win and preserve the hearts and secure comfort."~Sir Humphry Davy, Inventor (Safety Lamp for Miners)
"Life is very sweet, brother; who would want to die?" ~George Borrow
"Links of god may dull and sever, but links of friendship last for ever."~Anon
"...look at the pansies in my garden. From those there will be seeds for next year's flowers and then, from them, seeds for flowers the year after that." ~Keith Castle
"Lost, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, sixty golden minutes, each set with sixty diamond seconds. No reward is offered, for they are gone forever." ~Anon (1998/mpw)
"Make me humble enough to know my faults and, if I can't see them myself, to listen to others when they tell me about them."~Dr William Barclay
"Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the country, seashores and mountains but nowhere, either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble does a man retire than into his own soul."~ Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor, 2nd century (Meditations)
"Most quarrels arise from the fact that there are both wise men and fools who are incapable of seeing more than one side of any fact or idea, and each asserts that the side he sees is the only true and right one." ~Honore de Balzac
"Never mind if now and again people glance at their watches during your sermon. The time to worry is if someone holds his watch to his ear to see if it has stopped!" ~Dr. Alexander J. Grieve
"Never miss an opportunity to learn, (my boy). Find out what the person who is sitting next to you at dinner knows about, and then ask him how he does it. You're sure to be enthralled." ~Sir Winston Churchill (advice to Jon Pertwee), 1998/mpw
"Never yet was a Springtime when the buds forgot to blow." ~Margaret Elizabeth Sangster
"No matter where we are, we can be in our own garden. Just close your eyes and you can be walking down your garden pathway, enjoying the scent of the flowers." ~Beverley Nichols, The Friendship Book 2014 (special gift from Maurice Ware - who himself is a keen gardener).
"No thinker can believe that the worthwhileness of life is what we get out of it. No one enters life, or school, or club, or country, or marriage, possessed of that spirit will find any human institution a success." ~Sir Wilfred Grenfell, TFBFG 1983
"Not a day passes over the earth, but men and women of no note do great deeds, speak great words and suffer noble sorrows." ~Charles Reade, The Cloister and the Hearth
"Old age is a good and pleasant time. It is true that you are gently shouldered off the stage, but then you are given such a comfortable front stall as a spectator, and if you have really played your part, you are more than content to sit down and watch." ~Jane Harrison, Reminiscences of a Student's Life
"On a piano, you can play some sort if a tune on the back items alone, and some sort of a tune on the white notes, but for real music, black and white must be played together. So, black and white races must learn to live together in harmony." ~ Dr. James Emmanuel Kwegyir Aggrey (TFBFG 1987 from Carol Ann Hewer)
"Our greatest glory consists, not in never falling-but in rising every time we fall." ~Oliver Goldsmith
"Pray for me tonight and I will pray for you. If all the world did that how different it might be." ~Anon, TFBFG 17 September 1984
"Perfection is made up of trifles." ~Anon Artist~
"Shadow and sun--so too our lives are made--
Here learn how great the sun, how small the shade!" ~Tempus fugit~ (1984)
"Spring is a gentle stirring deep inside that insists you walk instead of waiting for a bus. It's when you breathe deeply. It's that fleeting moment of time each year when you suddenly become you. It's when you say 'Good Morning' and mean it." ~Sam Churchill (1984)
"Sweet lovers love the spring." ~William Shakespeare (1984)
"Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses." ~George Herbert (1984)
"Take the Sunday with you through the week and sweeten with it all the other days." ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1998/mpw)
"Teach me delight in simple things." ~Rudyard Kipling
"Tell me, have I spoken the truth? Then, let it remain. I will abide by it, whatever betide." ~George Buchanan, Great Scholar, Tutor to King James (the First Ruler of the United Scotland and Englanda) Book 1979
"The ability to laugh heartily is the sign of a healthy soul." ~Jean Cocteau, 1998/mpw
"The best thing to give your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your ear; to your child, good example; to your father, reverence; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all, charity." ~Francis Maitland Balfour
"The first day of Spring is one thing, and the first Spring day quite another." ~Henry van Dyke
"The hands of those I meet are eloquent to me. I have met people so empty of joy that when I clasped their frosty fingertips it seemed as if I were shaking hands with a north-east storm. Others there are whose hands have sunbeams in them." ~Helen Keller
"The happiness of married life is in making small sacrifices with gracefulness and cheerfullness." ~Jonathan Swift TFBFG 1998/mpw
"The heart has its reasons, of which reason knows nothing at all." ~Blaise Pascal
"The heart is never emptied by loving, nor the purse emptied by giving."~Unknown Grandpa
"The measure of a man's wealth is not the plenitude of his possessions but the fewness of his wants." ~Anon, TFBFG 1980
"The mind's the standard of the man." ~Dr Isaac Watts, Hymn Writer
"Remember that the opportunity for great deeds may never come, but the opportunity for good deeds is renewed day by day. The thing for us to long for is the goodness, not the glory." ~F.W. Faber, Catholic Hymn-writer (TFBFG 1985)
"The only way to write a gret book is o write it through the eyes of a child who sees things for the first time." ~Arnold Bennett, novelist, (TFBFG 1987/cah)
"The parts of an engine when working together in harmony actually seem to sing for joy." ~Anon (Aeronautical Engineer)
"The real measure of our wealth is how much we should be worth if we lost all our money." ~Dr J.H Jowett
"The sickest people are often the bravest. They make me feel humble - and proud of the privilege to serve them." ~Attributed to an Anon Doctor (TFBFG 2000 from MPW)
"The sun, which has all those planets revolving around it, is able to ripen the smallest bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else to do in the universe." ~Galileo, Pioneer Italian Astronomer
"The trend of Nature is towards completion and perfection." ~Dr Leslie Weatherhead, A Private House of Prayer
"The world is a looking-glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it, and it will in turn look sourly upon you; laugh at it and with it, and it is a jolly, kind companion." ~William Thackeray, Vanity Fair
"There are ten strong things:"There's tomorrow not touched yet." ~Anon Bus Driver, London
Iron is strong, but fire melts it.
Fire is strong, but water quenches it.
Water is strong, but the clouds evaporate it.
Clouds are strong, but winds drive them away.
Man is strong, but fears cast him down.
Fear is strong, but sleep overcomes it.
Sleep is strong, yet death is stronger.
Death is strong, but loving-kindness survives death." ~The Talmud
"There are two days in the week upon which and about which I never worry. Two carefree days, kept sacredly free from fear and apprehension. One of these days is Yesterday, and the other is Tomorrow." ~Robert Jones Burdette
"There was "a man whom others called poor but who had enough to support himself going about the country in the simplest way, enjoying the life and beauty of it." ~Lord Grey of Falloden
"To watch the corn grow and the blossom set;
to draw hard breath over the ploughshare and the spade;
to read, to think, to love, to pray -
these are the things that make men happy." ~John Ruskin
"There are three difficult things: To guard a secret, to bear an injury and to employ one's spare time." ~Diogenes Laertius
"There can be no friendship where there is no freedom. Friendship will speak freely and act so, too; and take nothing ill where no ill is meant; it will readily forgive and forget. "A true friend advises justly, assists readily, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably." ~Charles Lamb, Essayist, Poet
"There's no music in a 'rest' that I knw of: but there's the making of music in it. And people are always missing tat part of the life melody" ~John Ruskin (TFBFG 1985)
"There was enough mystery in a handful of moss to give one a lifetime's study." ~Carl Linnaeus, Swedish Botanist
"There's always someone who could do with few cheerful words." ~Kate Kelly of Merseyside
Little Birdies on the Tree
Morning Walkabout at Glen Regent Reserved
21 September 2011
Morning Walkabout at Glen Regent Reserved
21 September 2011
"This little bird had had its supper, and now it is getting ready to go to sleep, secure and content, not troubling itself what its food will be, or where its lodging tomorrow. Like David, it 'abides under the shadow of the Almighty.' It sits on its little twig content, and lets God take care." ~Martin Luther, German Reformer (upon seeing a small bird perching on a tree).
"To plant seeds and watch the renewal of life--this is the commonest delight of the race, the most satisfactory thing a man can do" ~Charles Dudley Warner
"To see a young couple loving each other is no wonder; but to see an old couple loving each other is the best sight of all." ~William Makepeace Thackeray
"Try to make the lives of those around you bright and happy-and the trying will be like a mirror reflecting brightness on your own life." ~W.A. Hooton, poet, hymnist
"We learn wisdom much more often from failure than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery." ~Dr Samuel Smiles, Scottish Writer
"Whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried will all my heart to do well; whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself to completely. In great aims and in small, I have always been thoroughly in earnest." ~Charles Dickens
"When I dig a man out of trouble, the hole which is left is the grave where I bury my own sorrow." ~Dr Stanley Jones, American Missionary to India
"When the outlook is bad, try the up-look!" ~Prof. Henry Drummond, Professor of Science - Free Church College, Glasgow, Scotland (Book 1985)
"Where they find faults, let them show it to me if they be nigh, or write to me if they be far off, or write openly against it, and I promise that, if I perceive that their reasons conclude, I will confess mine ignorance openly." ~William Tyndale, Bible Scholar, Translator (1494-1536)
"Work is the sovereign remedy for every human ill." ~Voltaire, 18th century French Philosopher
"Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only robs today of its strength." ~Anon
"You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people, than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you." ~Dale Carnegie, author of HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE, TFBFG 1998/mpw
"You will win more people by offering them a spoonful of honey than a jar of vinegar." ~Mrs C Frances Alexander, hymn-writer, 1895
"Youth is a state of the soul - nothing to do with age - everything to do with attitude." ~Anon, 1998/mpw
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Rules for Conversation
"When you are in company, talk often, but never long. In that case, if you do not please, at least you are sure not to tire your hearers.
Never hold anybody by the button, or the hand, in order to be heard out, for if people are not willing to hear you, you had much better hold your tongue than them."
~Lord Chesterfield, Letters To His Son, 1776 edition
Helpful "thought", Wayside Pulpit board
"To get joy, you must give it; to keep it you must scatter it.""When success turns your head, you could be looking at failure."
"One believing heart sets another on fire."
"Do not make God your pillow, or prayer your eiderdown."
"It's the storm that proves the strength of a ship."
We see things not as they are, but as we are."~February 10, 1984 entry
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"If you can't find a sunny side to your life, polish up the dark side."
"Patience comes easiest to those who find something to do while they're waiting."
"An optimist is a bridegroom who thinks he has no bad habits."
"The grass may look greener next door, but it's just as hard to cut."
"Everything is impossible to the person who doesn't try."
~September 22, 1980 entry
"There are ten strong things:"The Talmud"; November 6, 1984 from
Iron is strong, but fire melts it.
Fire is strong, but water quenches it.
Water is strong but the clouds evaporate it.
Clouds are strong, but winds drive them away.
Man is strong, but fears cast him down.
Fear is strong but sleep overcomes it.
Sleep is strong, yet death is stronger.
Death is strong, but loving-kindness survives death."
The Friendship Book of Francis Gay entry~
Ten-Second Sermons
The harder you fall, the higher you bounce.
Worry is like sand in an oyster. A little produces a pearl; too much kills the oyster.
Don't be so busy learning the tricks that you never learn the trade.
A lie travels all round the world while truth is putting on her boots.
All sunshine and nothing else makes a desert.
Noah managed to build the ark because he had no committee to help him.
If you want to be rich, try spending yourself.
Source: The Friendship Book 1981of Francis Gay
Recipe for a Happy Life
"On this day - take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth. Speak your love. Speak it again. Apologise if you were wrong. Try to understand. Gladden the heart of a child.
"Mend a quarrel. Search out a forgotten friend. Dismiss suspicion, and replace it with trust.
"Keep a promise. Fine the time. Forgo a grudge. Forgive an enemy. Examine your demands on others. Think first of someone else. Appreciate, be kind, be gentle. Laugh a little more. Deserve confidence. Express your gratitude. Worship God."
~Hungry Bear Restaurant, Florida sent in by Allan Burns to Francis Gay, The Friendship Book 1979, November 24 entry. Recipe was printed on the back of the Bill.
PROVERBS
"Footprints on the sands of time are not made by sitting down." ~Anon
"Friendship is a furrow in the sand." ~Tongan Proverb
"Hold a true friend with both your hands." ~Nigerian Proverb
"What makes us discontented with our condition is the absurdly exaggerated idea of the happiness of others." ~French Proverb, 1998/mpw
"You cannot prevent the birds of sadness from flying over your head, but you can prevent them building nests in your hair." ~ Chinese Proverb
Thank You╚═════ ೋღ☃ღೋ ═════╝
