WISDOM
FOR
WINTER

In Loving Memory

Those whom we have loved and lost are no longer where they were before. They are now wherever we are.

ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, D. 407 AD

Be Not Afraid

I do not fear that I may have to die. I fear that I have never lived.

ST JOHN HENRY NEWMAN

The Eternal City

Our dead are never dead to us unless we have forgotten them.

GEORGE ELIOT

Matter of Fact

It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, 1709–1784

Happy Days

As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so life well-used brings happy death.

LEONARDO DA VINCI, 1452–1519

Keys of the Kingdom

The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential . . . these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.

CONFUCIUS, 551–479 BC

People Listening Without Hearing

To listen well, is as powerful a means of influence as to talk well and is essential to all true conversation.

CHINESE PROVERB

Home, Sweet Home

A house is built of logs and stone,

Of piles and post and piers:

A home is built of loving deeds,

That stand a thousand years.

VICTOR HUGO

True Love Ways

The supreme happiness in life is the conviction that we are loved.

VICTOR HUGO

Starry, Starry Night

For my part I know nothing with any certainty,

But the sight of the stars makes me dream.

VINCENT VAN GOGH, 1853–1890

The Road of Life

The journey is the reward.

TAO WISDOM

Artistic Merit

The greatest artist of all is Christ, who doesn’t work with canvas but rather with human flesh.

VINCENT VAN GOGH

Will to Power

I will be truthful

I will suffer no injustice

I will be free from fear

I will not use force

I will be of good will to all.

MAHATMA GANDHI

Everything Goes

Everything is yours; do with it what you will.

Give me only your love and grace.

That is enough for me.

ST IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA, 1491–1556

River Runs

God is a great underground river that no one

Can dam up and no one can stop

MEISTER ECKHART

Joy

Give me a sense of humour

Give me the grace to see a joke

To get some pleasure out of life

And pass it on to other folk.

ANON

Equality

When you are accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.

ANON

Sun Set

The sun will set without thy assistance.

THE TALMUD

Time Well Spent

Prolong not the past

Invite not the future

Alter not your innate wakefulness

Don’t fear appearances

There is nothing more than this.

BUDDHA

Small is Beautiful

Do not overlook tiny good actions, thinking they are of no benefit; even tiny drops of water in the end will fill a huge vessel.

BUDDHA

Leadership

A leader is a man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don’t want to do and like it.

HARRY S. TRUMAN, 1884–1972

Sleeping Beauty

Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget

falls drop by drop upon the heart

until, in our own despair, against our will,

comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.

AESCHYLUS, 525–456 BC

Happy Hour

Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.

AESCHYLUS

Fortune Favours the Brave

Wisdom comes through suffering.

Trouble, with its memories of pain,

Drips in our hearts as we try to sleep,

So men against their will

Learn to practise moderation.

Favours come to us from gods.

AESCHYLUS

Simply the Best

His resolve is not to seem, but to be, the best.

AESCHYLUS

On My Oath

It’s not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath.

AESCHYLUS

Weighty Words

The reward of suffering is experience.

Words are doctors for the diseased temper.

AESCHYLUS

A Worthy Undertaking

Let us endeavour so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.

MARK TWAIN, 1835–1910

How Deep is Your Love?

All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.

HELEN KELLER, 1880–1968