Love and service

You can't lead the people if you don't love the people.
You can't save the people, if you don't serve the people.

        Cornell West, Hope on a Tightrope: Words and Wisdom

 

 

 

Learning how to learn

Once you learn how to learn,
you have only to discover what is worth learning.

        Timothy Gallwey, The Inner Game of Tennis

 

 

 

Silence

A man cannot understand the true value of silence
unless he has a real respect for the validity of language:
for the reality which is expressible in language is found,
face to face and without any medium, in silence.

                Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude

 

 

 

 

 

 

Power and responsibility

Power is little pieces of paper on the floor.
No one picks them up.
Ten people walk by and no one picks up the piece of paper on the floor.
The eleventh person walks by and is tired of looking at it,
and so he bends down and picks it up.
The next day he does the same thing.
And soon he’s in charge of picking up the paper.
Now – think of those pieces of paper as standing for responsibility.
This man or woman who is picking up the pieces of paper is,
by being responsible, acquiring more and more power…
All power is the willingness to accept responsibility.

        Larry Kramer, Reports from the Holocaust: The Making of an AIDS Activist

 

 

 

 

 

Good times

To love what you do and feel that it matters —
        how could anything be more fun?

                Katharine Graham, Ms. Magazine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All Soul's Day

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy;
    they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

                            Marcel Proust, Pleasures and Regrets 

 

 

 

 

 

All Saints' Day

From foolish devotions
        and sour-faced saints
                may God deliver us!

                       Teresa of Ávila, Autobiography