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If you are too busy to read, you are too busy.
— Richard Foster, Freedom of Simplicity
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Eleanor Roosevelt’s 3 (+1) rules for happiness
ByHeatherSomeone once asked me what I regarded as the three most important requirements for happiness. My answer was:
A feeling that you have been honest with yourself and those around you; a feeling that you have done the best you could both in your personal life and in your work; and the ability to love others.
But there is another basic requirement, and I can’t understand now how I forgot it at the time…
Misunderstanding Others
ByHeatherIt is hard for a free fish to understand what is happening to a hooked one.
— Karl A. Menninger, The Human Mind
This quote is a more poetic version of the one I posted yesterday that said, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”
According to Dr. George Watson at the University of Delaware, Karl Menninger was an early psychoanalyst who was probably referring to the criminal mind in this quote. Dr. Watson provides an expanded context of the quote.
Hope
ByHeatherHope springs eternal in the human heart.
— Alexander Pope, Essay on Man
As TV’s Craig Ferguson would say, “It’s a great day for America, everybody.”
Problem of Evil
ByHeatherIs God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
— Epicurus, philosopher (c. 341-270 BCE)
Years ago I struggled deeply with the Problem of Evil, i.e. the reconciliation of the existence of evil and suffering with the existence of a benevolent and omnipotent God. At the time, I found Dostoyevski’s novel The Brother’s Karamozov to be a great comfort and insight on the dilemma. I wish I had found Epicurus’ quote earlier in my life. The logic is compelling and impeccable.
Tyranny and Oppression
ByHeatherIf tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
—James Madison, fourth US president (1751-1836)