“One’s eyes are what one is; one’s mouth what one becomes.” – John Galsworthy
I like this quote. It doesn’t make perfect sense and it takes some thinking to grasp it, but in the end I think it is true, our mouths…our words, either create, reinforce a path or cause us to change directions.
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“If You Make People Think They’re Thinking, They Will Love You. If You Make Them Think, They’ll Hate You.” – Don Marquis
This quote is particularly important for me. I have a long history within the christian church and I had to part ways intellectually with it, in many ways due to the truth behind this quote. The traditional christian church isn’t really interested in its congregants thinking freely. They want to give the illusion of thinking through ideas. But in the end they fully expect that the answer they supply will be accepted and further questions will be not be forthcoming.
I was not comfortable being a youth leader when I was basically not allowed to encourage the students to really think for themselves, especially considering I had daughters in the youth group. Luckily my daughters have all become thinkers in their own right, often leading the way for my progress in the world of ideas.
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“Liberty will not descend to a people: A people must raise themselves to liberty. It is a blessing to be earned before it can be enjoyed.” – Charles Caleb Colton (Not Tilton)
I believe this and feel that sometimes our country’s (USA) overabundance sometimes allows for so many ‘pursuits of happiness’ that it is easy to think it is all just an entitlement that can’t disappear. But it can disappear. Luckily for us we have over 200 years of practice in sustaining our liberty so we have much invested in it.
2016 update – Some books have Ben Franklin saying this line but it is usually attributed to Charles Caleb Colton
Drawing and commentary © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds.” – Aesop
This brings to mind the issue of ‘inner beauty’ being all that is really important. I don’t agree with it. My set response when I hear someone say that is ‘If God didn’t want us to care about outer beauty, he wouldn’t have given us an outside’. And I know, you are saying, ‘but Marty, you are an atheist, how can you say that?’ I can say it because the idea is true whether God exists or not.
We have an outside for a reason, we have concepts of beauty for a reason, we have attractions based on the visual for a reason. To pretend there isn’t any purpose behind that is absurd and not based on reality.
Having said that, I love this quote because while outer beauty does exist and is important at some level, if that is all there is then the ‘bird’ is not truly yet a ‘fine bird’. There needs to be a inside and outside balance, both must be developed with a goal of ‘fineness’, of beauty, of love.
Drawing and commentary © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“Some say you cannot change the world. But I say it’s impossible NOT to change the world. The only question is will you change it for the better of for worse?”
This quote is from me. I have never doubted that every person changes the world, and most change it radically more than they realize, or can realize. Just to take one example out of current affairs (2008) Barack Obama’s father is Nigerian. His
grandparents and great grandparents from that side had no way of knowing the impact their relationships, their unions, would have on America many years down the road. So it is with us.
Some things we can see we have done something, built a business, given good advice, etc. But so much more we will never know. But what we do know is if we behave with love and care, try to grow and mature, build beauty, truth and love wherever and whenever we can, then we will most likely change the world for the better.
Drawing, quote and commentary © 2022 by me
“The Sky is the Daily Bread Of The Eyes.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
This one hit me because of how truly gorgeous the Oklahoma sky is. I remember after we moved here and someone asked me what I thought of Oklahoma compared to California, where I had lived before. They assumed I would think that the land, the environment, was boring here. I told them, that yes, California has the more interesting landscape for the most part, the California sky was incredibly boring compared to Oklahoma’s.
Virtually every day the sky gives something beautiful to look at and experience: clouds, winds, rain, sunsets/sunrises, sun, storms, hail, lightning, thunder. It is almost never the same two days in a row.
Drawing and commentary © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
Good teaching is 1/4 preparation and 3/4 theatre.” – Gail Godwin, 1937 – not dead yet, American writer
I believe this. I know from my 9 years of teaching the theatre in the classroom was essential to allow the prepared material to come forth effectively. And like I told many people preparing presentations, just remember, they are not aware of what they are not being taught or told. So you really only have to worry about what the audience sees and hears, not what you didn’t have ready in time, or forgot, or couldn’t figure out how to fit in. All that really matters is what they do see and hear.
Drawing and commentary © 202 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“Men love war because it is the one thing that stops women laughing at them.” – John Fowles, 1926-2005, English writer
This is terribly cynical and sexist towards men, but it was such an interesting idea I had to use it on one of the napkins.
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“If Everything On Earth Were Rational Nothing Would Happen.” – Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1821-1881, Russian writer
Drawing © 2016 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“Adolescence is That Time in Kids Lives When Parents Become More Difficult” – Anonymous
I probably wrote this one on a day when one of my daughters and I had a little argument or something.
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“Moral Indignation Is Jealousy With A Halo” – H. G. Wells
I don’t think it is an absolute, but I certainly see enough examples of it to know it is true in a good portion of moral tirades.
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“Everybody’s friend is nobody’s” – Arthur Schopenhauer, 1788-1860, German Philosopher
We have heard it again and again, but there will always be a part of most people that wants everyone to like them, or at least not dislike them.
When raising my daughters I tried to strike a balance between teaching them not to worry about having everyone like them and having them try to be kind and fair and open to everyone they met. The result I hoped would be that indeed most people would like them, but their behavior would be a result of wanting to do what is right and kind not out of some desperation to be liked.
Of course children learn more from what you do that from what you say so they watched their mother and I and saw two people who struggled with finding this same balance. All I could hope is they saw us making progress in our efforts, not that they saw us being able to achieve the balance perfectly at all times.
Drawing and commentary © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“The years teach much which the days never know.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
I like imagining that years, days, hours, are all conscious entities teaching us. I know it isn’t true, but I like the creative idea. What I do know is as we pass through years and other time eras, decades even, it’s as if we go through an assembly line. Not in the sense that we all turn out the same, but in the sense that we all go through similar moments, similar events as we travel through time. what is finally assembled is unique to each of us, it is not decided by the process or event as much as it is decided by our reaction to them.
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“You have the God given right to kick the government around, don’t hesitate to do so.” – Edmund Muskie
I like that this came from Muskie, a former Senator, VP and presidential candidate. I don’t think we have the problem of holding back like the country used to before the Vietnam War.
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“To know the world one must construct it.” – Cesare Pavese, 1908-1950, Italian Poet
This is a good thing to remember. The world of humans doesn’t just exist. We build our world through experience, genetics, necessity, desire, fear, hope and need. It is good to take time to reflect on how our constructed world may or may not reflect reality. For example, the person who feels everyone is out to get them. Did that person really construct an accurate world, is it true? Or the person who constantly worries about dying or being poverty stricken. How real or the threats he or she faces
and is the world they constructed based on a realistic appraisal of those risks, or just out-of-whack fear and apprehension.
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless we preach as we walk.” – St. Francis
While I am no longer a believer in Christian evangelism, I am a believer in practicing what you preach. This quote clarifies the futility of preaching if you only do it on the alter, instead of wherever you are. Figuring out how to live according to your principles daily instead of just talking about them is a very noble goal!
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“Art is nature speeded up and God slowed down.” – Malcolm de Chazal, 1902-1981, Mauritian writer and artist
I don’t know what this really means, but I liked it’s simplicity.
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“Any class is all right if it will only let others be so.” – Samuel Butler
Of course, the issue is, will each class let others from the lesser classes come into theirs! But the general idea, to let other people be who they want to be and not bother them is, of course, valid. It is amazing how many individuals, fathers, mothers, governments, churches, etc. have so much invested in making sure as many people as possible are like them.
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“Don’t be afraid to take a big step if one is needed. You can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps.” – D. L. George
I think this is a perfect quote to give to someone who is in danger of hesitating. It gives an illustration that can’t be argued or lessened. Take the leap or not, but you can’t do a hop, skip and a jump over that chasm.
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“The superstition of science scoffs at the superstition of faith.” James Anthony Froude
I have read and studied a lot about science since I chose this quote for a napkin. While I understand that science does have some prejudices and blind spots I certainly don’t see science and religion as equal in the superstition department. Religion is rooted in superstition and beyond that has no mechanism to overcome it while science has built into it a method of examining itself and correcting, growing, moving forward.
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“The finger of God never leaves identical fingerprints.” – Stanislaus Lec
It’s another way of saying that God isn’t one thing, isn’t one being. God isn’t a
being at all, in the sense we know ‘being’. God is what happens. What do you think?
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
