“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
“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.
“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.
“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.
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.
“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.
