3.29.2009

Perfect Friction

The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.

~Confucius

4 comments:

  1. What power there is in this proverb!!! We learn from the experiences we live and the challenges we face. How can we expect to grow and develop without the outcomes of the trials we live? Learning from mistakes and using as a stepping stone forward is critical for success to be had. Failure to do so and/or varying outcomes could and would alter the vibrancy and clarity of the gem.

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  2. Absolutely!!!

    I always view wisdom quotes as the quickest, sharpest tool as a crash course in living right!

    “Learn as though you would never be able to master it; Hold it as though you would be in fear of losing it”

    Here a few to ponder:
    Loyalty...Respect...Gratitude
    LOYALTY
    The highest spiritual quality, the noblest property of mind a man can have, is this of loyalty ... a man with no loyalty in him, with no sense of love or reverence or devotion due to something outside and above his poor daily life, with its pains and pleasures, profits and losses, is as evil a case as man can be.

    ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE, Ode to Mazzini

    LOYALTY
    A man is not an orange. You can't eat the fruit and throw the peel away.

    ARTHUR MILLER, Death of a Salesman



    RESPECT
    Henri Frederic Amiel: There is no respect for others without humility in one's self.

    John Gray:
    When men and women are able to respect and accept their differences then love has a chance to blossom.


    GRATITUDE
    “Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind.”

    “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”

    “Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”

    "Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

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  3. Here is another good one!

    “The cruellest lies are often told in silence. A man may have sat in a room for hours and not opened his mouth, and yet come out of that room a disloyal friend or a vile calumniator.”

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So, what do you think?