The first two stanzas of Whitman's Song at Sunset came to mind while I walked my dogs under the trees lit by the setting sun last evening: Splendor of ended day, floating and filling me! Hour prophetic—hour resuming the past! Inflating my throat—you, divine average! You, Earth and Life, till the last ray gleams, I …
Tag: greg hake
Good People
"It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men, the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui." ~ Helen Keller What would a day look like were you to expend the entirety of your energies loving …
The Struggles of Man
"Religion, Society, and Nature—these are the three struggles of man." ~ Victor Hugo If all the human activity undertaken in the course of a day, month or year were put in a pot still and reduced to its fractions, there would be but three fundamental components: religion, society and nature. Every man who has ever …
A Better Person
"If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month." ~ Theodore Roosevelt When you give thought to the difficulties you face in life, don't be so quick to judge, blame and condemn those around you. Look first to make sure, with 100% confidence, …
Kinetic Fluidity
Have you ever stumbled across a realization in one area of your life that unlocks the door to understanding in another? This can occur with relative frequency to the degree that you view your life holistically, rather than as a collection of compartments. Modern science conditions us to think reductively, to the point that our …
A Foundation in Truth
I saw a great many castles while traveling through Europe during my youth and one in particular caught my fancy. Pictured above, the Neuschwanstein castle ("New Swan Rock") is a magical edifice built upon Swan Rock, a massive stone outcropping overlooking Hohenschwangau near Füssen in southwestern Bavaria. A powerful symbol for a life built upon …
The Seeds You Plant
"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant." ~ Robert Louis Stevenson The harvest you reap is a thing of the past. You cannot do much about your harvests, apart from handling them with the fullness of dignity available to you. You do, however, have complete control …
What am I?
"The man who makes the acquisition of wealth the goal and ultimatum of his life, seeing it as an end rather than a means to an end, is not true. Why does the world usually make wealth the criterion of success, and riches the synonym of attainment? Real success in life means the individual’s conquest …
Know the Truth
"Truth is the oldest of all the virtues; it antedated man, it lived before there was man to perceive it or to accept it. It is the unchangeable, the constant. Law is the eternal truth of Nature—the unity that always produces identical results under identical conditions. When a man discovers a great truth in Nature …
Changeless Truth
"Lying is the sacrifice of honor to create a wrong impression. It is masquerading in misfit virtues. Truth can stand alone, for it needs no chaperone or escort. Lies are cowardly, fearsome things that must travel in battalions. They are like a lot of drunken men, one vainly seeking to support another. Lying is the …
Gregory Hake 