MLK jr. quotes for today's holiday

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values - that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'
Martin Luther King, Jr.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

We must use time creatively.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

G K Chesterton "Orthodoxy" - quotes about humility

2 amazing quotes from G K Chesterton's book "Orthodoxy" - these are about humility; and the freedom that comes from it.

G K Chesterton “Orthodoxy”

“It is impossible without humility to enjoy anything – even pride. But what we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place. Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition. Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction; where it was never meant to be. A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed. Nowadays the part of a man that the man does assert is exactly the part he ought not to assert – himself. The part he doubts is exactly the part he ought not to doubt – the Divine Reason. Huxley preached a humility content to learn from nature. But the new skeptic is so humble that he doubts if he can ever learn… The old humility was a spur that prevented a man from stopping; not a nail in his boot that prevented him from going on. For the old humility made a man doubtful about his efforts, which might make him work harder. But the new humility makes him doubtful about his aims, which will make him stop working altogether… We are on the road to producing a race of men too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table.” Pp.27-28

“How much happier you would be if you only knew that these people cared nothing about you! How much larger your life would be if your self could become smaller in it; if you could really look at other men with curiosity and pleasure; if you could see them walking as they are in their sunny selfishness and their virile indifference! You would begin to be interested in them, because they were not interested in you. You would break out of this tiny and tawdry theater in which your own little plot is always being played, and you would find yourself under a freer sky, in a street full of splendid strangers…How much happier you would be, how much more of you there would be, if the hammer of a higher God could smash your small cosmos, scattering the stars like spangles, and leave you in the open, free like other men to look up as well as down.” P.15

g k chesterton quotes

"A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it." - Everlasting Man, 1925

"The person who is really in revolt is the optimist, who generally lives and dies in a desperate and suicidal effort to persuade other people how good they are." - Introduction to The Defendant

"I think the oddest thing about the advanced people is that, while they are always talking about things as problems, they have hardly any notion of what a real problem is." - Uses of Diversity

"The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man." - Introduction to the Book of Job, 1907

"Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions." - ILN, 4/19/30

"An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered; an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered." - On Running After Ones Hat, All Things Considered, 1908

"Among the rich you will never find a really generous man even by accident. They may give their money away, but they will never give themselves away; they are egotistic, secretive, dry as old bones. To be smart enough to get all that money you must be dull enough to want it." - A Miscellany of Men

"I believe what really happens in history is this: the old man is always wrong; and the young people are always wrong about what is wrong with him. The practical form it takes is this: that, while the old man may stand by some stupid custom, the young man always attacks it with some theory that turns out to be equally stupid." - ILN 6-3-22


"A teacher who is not dogmatic is simply a teacher who is not teaching."


- Gilbert K. Chesterton

"What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place. Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition and settled upon the organ of conviction, where it was never meant to be. A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed. We are on the road to producing a race of men too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table."




G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, p.31-32


Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.

Gilbert K. Chesterton

I believe in getting into hot water; it keeps you clean.

Gilbert K. Chesterton

One may understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star.

Gilbert K. Chesterton

MLK jr quotes

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.


Martin Luther King, Jr.

Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'
Martin Luther King, Jr.



I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.


Martin Luther King, Jr.



I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

Martin Luther King, Jr.



I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live.

Martin Luther King, Jr.



If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values - that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.

Martin Luther King, Jr.



We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.

Martin Luther King, Jr.



We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.

Martin Luther King, Jr.



We must use time creatively.

Martin Luther King, Jr.



Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.

Martin Luther King, Jr.



I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.

Martin Luther King, Jr.



I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

Martin Luther King, Jr.



Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent.

Martin Luther King, Jr.



Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Martin Luther King, Jr.



Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.

Martin Luther King, Jr.



Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.

Martin Luther King, Jr.



Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.

Martin Luther King, Jr.



Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

Martin Luther King, Jr.



Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

wonder + creativity

To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.
Joseph Chilton Pearce

The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get old ones out. Every mind is a building filled with archaic furniture. Clean out a corner of your mind and creativity will instantly fill it.
Dee Hock

The ability to see beauty is the beginning of our moral sensibility. What we believe is beautiful we will not wantonly destroy.
Reverend Sean Parker Dennison

Develop interest in life... in people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.
Henry Miller

Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night." -Edgar Allan Poe

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.
John Muir

By reading the scriptures I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me. The sky seems to be a pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green. The whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music under my feet.
Thomas Merton

Men love to wonder, and that is the seed of science.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

“In spite of illness, in spite even of the arch-enemy sorrow, one can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways.”
Edith Wharton

Eccentric doesn't bother me. 'Eccentric' being a poetic interpretation of a mathematical term meaning something that doesn't follow the lines - that's okay.
Crispin Glover

A Few Oswald Chambers Quotes

"Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time."
Oswald Chambers

"Holiness, not happiness, is the chief end of man."
Oswald Chambers


"It is the unseen and the spiritual in people that determines the outward and the actual."
Oswald Chambers

"The dearest friend on earth is a mere shadow compared to Jesus Christ."
Oswald Chambers


"We have to pray with our eyes on God, not on the difficulties."
Oswald Chambers

"We look upon the enemy of our souls as a conquered foe, so he is, but only to God, not to us."
Oswald Chambers

"When a man is at his wits' end it is not a cowardly thing to pray, it is the only way he can get in touch with Reality."
Oswald Chambers

"When it is a question of God's almighty Spirit, never say, "I can't.""
Oswald Chambers

"You will never cease to be the most amazed person on earth at what God has done for you on the inside."
Oswald Chambers

Faith, Hope, and Love by C.S. Lewis

I wanted to share a few things that I read today about faith, hope, and love.

Faith =
"The question of faith arises after a man has tried his level best to practice the Christian virtues, and found that he fails, and seen that even if he could he would only be giving back to God what was already God's own. In other words, he discovers his bankruptcy. Now, once again, what God cares about is not exactly our actions. What He cares about is that we should be creatures of a certain kind of quality - the kind of creatures He intended us to be - creatures related to Himself in a certain way. I do not add "and related to one another in a certain way" because that is included: if you are right with Him, you will inevitably be right with your fellow creatures, just as if all the spokes of a wheel are fitted rightly to the hub and the rim, they are bound to be in right positions to one another."

Hope =
"Aim at Heaven and you will get earth "thrown in": aim at Earth and you will get neither. We must learn to want something more. The real want for heaven is present in us, but we do not recognize it. Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise."

Love =
"Our [agape, giving love] must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner - no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment."

Enjoying Nature

I wanted to share some quotes on the enjoying of nature. Not every one of these come from a Christian perspective; but some of them do. And, being a Christian who feels very close to God when enjoying nature, I can appreciate these a great deal.

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul."
-John Muir

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Forests, lakes, and rivers, clouds and winds, stars and flowers, stupendous glaciers and crystal snowflakes - every form of animate or inanimate existence, leaves its impress upon the soul of man."
-Orison Swett Marden

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."
-Albert Einstein

"By reading the scriptures I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me. The sky seems to be a pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green. The whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music under my feet."
-Thomas Merton

self-focus vs. others-focus

“The love of our neighbor is the only door out of the dungeon of self, where we mope and mow, striking sparks, and rubbing phosphorescences out of the walls, and blowing our own breath in our own nostrils, instead of issuing to the fair sunlight of God, the sweet winds of the universe.” -George MacDonald

One may understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star.
-Gilbert K. Chesterton

Hell is yourself and the only redemption is when a person puts himself aside to feel deeply for another person.
-Tennessee Williams

Nothing you do for children is ever wasted. They seem not to notice us, hovering, averting our eyes, and they seldom offer thanks, but what we do for them is never wasted.
Garrison Keillor

"For most of my life I thought that the way to be happy was to have as many pleasurable experiences as you could. Sounds reasonable, doesnt it? But as it turns out, one of lifes many cruel whims is that happiness and pleasure are often at complete odds. For me, one of the most unpleasant things in life is writing. I hate writing. I hate having to sit down to a blank screen every day and create something. Id so much rather curl up in front of my TV and watch some mindless movie. That would bring me a lot more pure pleasure. On the other hand, except for my boys, nothing in life brings me more happiness than writing. So on the days I do surrender to the lure of instant gratification, I wind up feeling miserable. Its often true that while displeasure lies in the doing, happiness lies in the having done."

- Rick Reynolds

"Love makes everything lovely"
-George MacDonald

a few quotes from francis bacon

"They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea."

"A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds."

"He that gives good advice, builds with one hand; he that gives good counsel and example, builds with both; but he that gives good admonition and bad example, builds with one hand and pulls down with the other."

"Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New."

"Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts bring us back to God."

- Francis Bacon