Food For Thought

[caressa]

Many might have attained to wisdom,

Taken from The Yearbook of Love and Wisdom by Celia Haddon

[caressa]

The best men, doing their best,
Know preradventure least of what they do
Men usefullest i' the world are simply used.



Each one of us was put in the world for a purpose, says the poet Elizabeth Barret Browning, but many of us may never know what it was. This idea comforts me in times of apparent failure.

- Celia Haddon

[caressa]

Have you leaned upon a gate, without a need for words,
To take in Nature's wonder, and to listen to the birds?
Yes, leaning on a gate is a thing we ought to do.
It helps us to unwind and such moments are so few.

An anonymous commonplace verse to reminds me to slow down.

- Celia Haddon

[caressa]

The Prophet Muhammad was once asked which deeds are most loved by God. His reply, paraphrased here, was very shrewd.

The deeds most loved by God are the regular and habitual ones, even if they are few. Don't take things upon yourself, unless they are things which are within your abilities to carry out.

- Celia Haddon




Just because I love the picture.

[caressa]

Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much;
Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.

- William Cowper

Whoever is kind to the creatures of God is kind to himself.

The Prophet Muhammad

[caressa]

One today is worth two tomorrows.

- Francis Quarles

A pain in the mind, is the prelude to all discovery.

I find this thought of Sir Almroth Wright's comforting. When I am in emotional pain, it may lead me to some valuable self-knowledge.

- Celia Haddon

[caressa]

One of my frequent failings is to rush to give solutions to people who just need sympathy. The Revd Charles Colton puts it this way:

It is always safe to learn, even from enemies; seldom safe to instruct even our friends.

- Celia Haddon

[caressa]

A friend is a present you give yourself.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

[caressa]

I have received a Power infinitely greater
Than that both of creating and enjoying worlds;
Infinitely more blessed, profitable, divine, glorious.
O Lord, I am contented with my being.
I rejoice in Thine infinite bounty,
And praise Thy goodness.
I see plainly that Thy love is infinite.

- Thomas Traherne

[caressa]

We must have our times for companionship with God.

- William Temple

[caressa]

It's never too late to have a happy childhood. - author unknown

[caressa]

For only by unlearning Wisdom comes.

As this line by James Russel Lowell suggests, there is a kind of wisdom that comes by rejecting conventional good sense, what people will think, or the need to conform, and acting in freedom.

- Celia Haddon

[caressa]

We have first to learn to love ourselves, because, without such generous love of self, our love for others becomes, whatever its outward manifestations, in its inner essence a compulsive grasping in which we try to compensate from their personality for the value which we deny to our own.

Harry Williams

[caressa]

Vain is the glory of the sky,
The beauty vain of field and grove,
Unless, while with admiring eye
We gaze, we also learn to love.

William Wordsworth


Heavy thoughts bring on physical maladies; when the soul is oppressed, so is the body. But when the heart is at rest, and quiet, then it takes care of the body. Therefore we ought to abandon and resist anxious thoughts by all possible means.

- Martin Luther

[majestyjo]

A day without your God has little meaning and direction.

Don't leave home without Him.♥