"Ingratitude is manifest in three degrees of intensity in the world... The first phase, the simplest and most common, is that of thoughtless thanklessness... The second phase of ingratitude is denial, a positive sin, not the mere negation of thanklessness... The third phase of ingratitude is treachery, where selfishness grows vindictive... These three—thanklessness, denial and …
Category: Observations on Life
The Courage to Face Ingratitude XI
"The farmer does not expect every seed that he sows in hope and faith to fall on good ground and bring forth its harvest; he is perfectly certain that this will not be so, cannot be so. He is counting on the final outcome of many seeds, on the harvest of all rather than on …
The Courage to Face Ingratitude X
"If a man receives a counterfeit dollar he does not straightway lose his faith in all money,—at least there are not such instances on record in this country. If he has a run of three or four days of dull weather he does not say 'the sun ceases to exist, there are surely no bright …
The Courage to Face Ingratitude IX
"Confidence and credit are the cornerstones of business, as they are of society. Withdraw them from business and the activities and enterprises of the world would stop in an instant, topple and fall into chaos. Withdraw confidence in humanity from the individual, and he becomes but a breathing, selfish egotist, the one good man left, …
The Courage to Face Ingratitude VIII
"In justice to ourselves we should not permit the ingratitude of a few to make us condemn the whole world. We pay too much tribute to a few human insects when we let their wrong-doing paralyze our faith in humanity. It is a lie of the cynics that says “all men are ungrateful,” a companion …
The Courage to Face Ingratitude VII
"To realize that he who once lived in the sanctuary of our affection, in the frank confidence where conversation seemed but our soliloquy, and to whom our aims and aspirations have been thrown open with no Bluebeard chamber of reserve, has been secretly poisoning the waters of our reputation and undermining us by his lies …
The Courage to Face Ingratitude VI
"It is hard to see those who have sat at our board in the days of our prosperity, flee as from a pestilence when misfortune darkens our doorway; to see the loyalty upon which we would have staked our life, that seemed firm as a rock, crack and splinter like thin glass at the first …
The Courage to Face Ingratitude V
"Man should not be an automatic gas-machine, cleverly contrived to release a given quantity of illumination under the stimulus of a nickel. He should be like the great sun itself which ever radiates light, warmth, life and power, because it cannot help doing so. Because these qualities fill the heart of the sun, and for …
The Courage to Face Ingratitude IV
"Man should have only one court of appeals as to his actions, not “what will be the result?” 'how will it be received?' but 'is it right?' Then he should live his life in harmony with this standard alone, serenely, bravely, loyally and unfalteringly, making 'right for right’s sake' both his ideal and his inspiration." …
The Courage to Face Ingratitude III
"The expectation of gratitude is human; the rising superior to ingratitude is almost divine. To desire recognition of our acts of kindness and to hunger for appreciation and the simple justice of a return of good for good, is natural. But man never rises to the dignity of true living until he has the courage …
Gregory Hake 