"Analysis kills spontaneity. The grain once ground into flour springs and germinates no more." ~ Henri Frederic Amiel Life is a mix of predictable cycles punctuated on occasion by the unexpected. The most obvious rhythms we experience are those caused by the machinations of the universe. Our planet turns on its axis, its revolutions give …
Category: Observations on Life
Right makes Might
The moment you consecrate yourself to a higher purpose you establish a pole in the earth through which your influence can be felt and known. That pole allows for polarization, wherein all that is agreement with your purpose aligns with you while all that is opposed to that which you stand for allies against you. …
Winning Friends and Influencing People
Dale Carnegie's best-selling book "How to Win Friends and Influence People" turns 75 this year and its publisher - for better or for worse - is releasing an updated version that deals with the peculiarities of the digital age. Carnegie originally wrote this classic in an era where most communication was face-to-face, so it is …
The Courage to Face Ingratitude XIX
"Let us conceive of gratitude in its largest, most beautiful sense, that if we receive any kindness we are debtor, not merely to one man, but to the whole world. As we are each day indebted to thousands for the comforts, joys, consolations, and blessings of life, let us realize that it is only by …
The Courage to Face Ingratitude XVIII
"No good act performed in the world ever dies. Science tells us that no atom of matter can ever be destroyed, that no force once started ever ends; it merely passes through a multiplicity of ever-changing phases. Every good deed done to others is a great force that starts an unending pulsation through time and …
The Courage to Face Ingratitude XVII
"Ingratitude is some one's protest that you are no longer necessary to him; it is often the expression of rebellion at the discontinuance of favors. People are rarely ungrateful until they have exhausted their assessments. Profuse expressions of gratitude do not cancel an indebtedness any more than a promissory note settles an account. It is …
The Courage to Face Ingratitude XVI
"That which often seems to us to be ingratitude, may be merely our own ignorance of the subtle phases of human nature. Sometimes a man's heart is so full of thankfulness that he cannot speak, and in the very intensity of his appreciation, mere words seem to him paltry, petty, and inadequate, and the depth …
The Courage to Face Ingratitude XV
"Let us forget the good deeds we have done by making them seem small in comparison with the greater things we are doing, and the still greater acts we hope to do. This is true generosity, and will develop gratitude in the soul of him who has been helped, unless he is so petrified in …
The Courage to Face Ingratitude XIV
"The essence of truest kindness lies in the grace with which it is performed. Some men seem to discount all gratitude, almost make it impossible, by the way in which they grant favors. They make you feel so small, so mean, so inferior; your cheeks burn with indignation in the acceptance of the boon you …
The Courage to Face Ingratitude XIII
"We must ever tower high above dependence on human gratitude or we can do nothing really great, nothing truly noble. The expectation of gratitude is the alloy of an otherwise virtuous act. It ever dulls the edge of even our best actions. Most persons look at gratitude as a protective tariff on virtues. The man …
Gregory Hake 