"There is no quality I would rather have, and be thought to have, than gratitude. For it is not only the greatest virtue, but is the mother of all the rest." -- Cicero (106-43 BC)

"The world is a great mirror. It reflects back to you what you are. If you are loving, if you are friendly, if you are helpful, the world will prove loving and friendly and helpful to you. The world is what you are." -- Thomas Dreier

"You are young, and as the years go by, time will change, and even reverse many of your present opinions. Refrain, therefore, awhile from setting yourself up as a judge of the highest matters." -- Plato

"Our happiness and usefulness in life will be determined more by our perspective than by our intelligence, good fortune or wealth. How we choose to look at things will have a continuing effect on us. The frustrations and denials of life which sometimes seem so cruel and unfair are often found to be important equipment for our lives." --Gayle Rhoads

"No matter where you work, seek out the janitor. . . . They know everything and they know everybody. Don't ever think that you know more than someone who is mopping the floor." -- Bill Cosby

"If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy; if the world were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I wake up each morning torn between a desire to save the world and a desire to savor the world. This makes it very hard to plan the day." -- E. B. White

"I have lived to thank God that all my prayers have not been answered."--Jean Ingelow, Signs of the Times, June 27, 1944

"I inhabit a weak, frail, decayed tenement, battered by the winds and broken by the storms, and from all I can learn, the landlord does not intend to repair." -- John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the United States, when asked how he was feeling. [He] suffered a stroke at age 79, but continued a time in public life.

"Many believe in no right principle of action but self interest." -- A. Lincoln

"We have reached the age, those of us to whom fortune has assigned a post in life's struggle, when beaten and smashed and biffed by the lashing of the dragon's tail, we begin to appreciate that the old man was not such a fool after all. We saw our parents wrestling with the same dragon, and we thought, though we never spoke a thought aloud, 'Why doesn't he hit him on the head?' Alas, comrads, we know now. We have hit the dragon on the head and we have seen the dragon smile." -- Ernest Lawrence Thayer, at his tenth reunion at Harvard , American Heritage, 1976.

"Are you willing to admit that probably the only good reason for your existance is not what you are going to get out of life but what you are going to put into it? To close your book of complaints against the management of the universe and to look around for a place where you can sow a few seeds of happiness?" -- Dr. Thomas Dooley, USN MD, 1954 - Supervised refugee camps to house fleeing N Vietnamise, l959 - Diagnosed, Cancer, Returned to Laos, 1961 - Died, age 34. From his final book, The Night They Burned the Mountain"

"In a world that values only what is young and green, summer reminds us that maturity and ripeness were designed to be the biggest prizes. A tomato or a melon is best eaten at its peak. A rosebud is lovely but incomplete. A meadow in full bloom is more beautiful than one just beginning to grow. In nature, grown-ups are the leading players." -- Living, Martha Stewart, Jul/Aug 96, p. 87.

"Beautiful young people are accidents of nature. Beautiful old people are works of art." -- Anon.

"Cleanliness of body was ever deemed to proceed from a due reverence to God." -- Francis Bacon -1562 -1626.

"Cleanliness is indeed next to godliness." -- John Wesley - 1703 -1791.

"When I was a young man I was sure of everything; but in a few years, finding myself mistaken in a thousand instances, I became not half so sure most things as before." -- By John Wesley, Signs of the Times, January 3,...

He has achieved Success who has lived long, laughed often, and loved much.
Who has gained the trust of pure women, the respect of intelligent men,
and the love of little children.
Who has filled his niche and accomplished his task.
Who has left the world better than he found it,
whether [it be through a lovelier poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul].
Who has always appreciated the earth’s beauty and never failed to express it.
Who has always looked for the best in others, and given the best he had.
Whose life was an inspiration; whose memory a benediction.

--This definition of success was written by the wife of the Superintendent of Instruction in Lincoln County, Kansas, which won the prize offered by a newspaper for the best definition of Success written in one hundred words.

"One must wait until the evening to see how splendid the day has been." -- Sophocles, and used in a farewell speech by former President Richard Nixon.

"A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way." -- Mark Twain

"You are always right when you are courteous." -- W. Maxey Jarman