The last post was long and arduous. So I wanted something of
a respite today. Occasionally on such days I do a quote file post. I have a
very large quote file related to the interrelationships of the political, economic,
and social spheres. Enough for a book.
But I also have another quote file. More personal. Related
to things of interest to me, rather than specifically related to the Spherical Model. I haven’t shared these before. But today’s a good day for a sampling.
This quote file tends toward the religious, but also just things I want to save
because they’re well said. I hope you can take a moment away from the news of
the day and enjoy these, for respite.
_________________________
Let us weigh
the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two
chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then,
without hesitation that He is.—Blaise Pascal
Albert Einstein (image from Getty Images)
We should take care
not to make the intellect our God; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no
personality.—Albert Einstein
Keep
studying the scriptures, keep doing the things that build your faith in Jesus
Christ and then notice the wise choices you are naturally drawn to make.—Russell
M. Nelson
When obstacles arise, you
change your direction to reach your goal; you do not change your decision to
get there.—Zig Ziglar
You
can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and
change the ending.—C. S. Lewis
It’s a lot easier
to change your beliefs about the world than it is to change reality itself.—Rob
Scott
It’s a problem when words like Turnt, Fleek
or Bae are more understandable than actual words like Ethics, Morals, Respect
and Integrity.—Will Smith, “House of Leaders”
If you think you’ve blown God’s plan for your life,
rest in this:
You, my beautiful
friend, are not that powerful.—Lisa Bever
You will continue
to suffer if you have an emotional reaction to everything that is said to you.
True power is sitting back and observing things with logic. True power is
restraint. If words control you that means everyone else can control you.
Breathe and allow things to pass.—Warren Buffett
Scared is what you're feeling. Brave is what
you're doing.― Emma Donoghue
Some
believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not
what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that
keep the darkness at bay…small acts of kindness and love.
—Gandalf
(Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien)
Gandalf, from Lord of the Rings movie image found here
There is more
individuality in those who are more holy. Sin, on the other hand, brings
sameness; it shrinks us to addictive appetites.—Neal A. Maxwell
God assumed from the beginning that the wise of
the world would view Christians as fools…. And He has not been disappointed….
If I have brought any message today, it is this: Have the courage to have your
wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to
suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world.—Justice Antonin Scalia
The biggest mistake in communication
is assuming that it has taken place.
—Jon Erwin
Do not
overpack the luggage you plan to take with you when you leave this world, for
we simply cannot get most mortal things by celestial customs; only the eternal
things are portable.—Neal A. Maxwell
Endurance is patience concentrated.—Thomas
Carlisle
I will not let anyone walk through my mind with
their dirty feet.
—Mahatma Ghandi
You do not have to believe everything you
think.
(seen
on Mindvalley Facebook page July 21, 2019, original reference unknown)
Being
a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than it is about courageously
and relentlessly doing God’s will.—Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The person who’s in love with their vision of community will
destroy community. But the person who loves the people around them will create
community everywhere they go.—Dietrich Bonhoeffer
We worked an election on Saturday. The only thing on our
ballot was a school district bond election (an astounding $1.76 billion). It won,
of course, with 70% of the votes. But only 4.6% of registered voters voted (10,499
for and 4,544 against). So I could talk about education, or property taxes, but I think I'll forego.
This was our first countywide election on a voting day
(early voting has always been countywide). Several voting places were combined,
and our alternate judge was an experienced judge and very good to work with. He
was an older black man, a retired police officer, and a faithful Catholic. We
had pleasant conversations with him.
It’s not surprising that a he’s part of the 90% of blacks
who vote Democrat. But, getting to know him, it’s hard to imagine he’ll be
happy voting for any of the pro-socialism candidates for President in their
primary.
We have so much in common with other religious people. I
hope at some point that translates into voting to protect our Constitution. The
Blexit movement is underway, but so far aiming mostly at younger voters.
Anyway, I’m thinking about religion and freedom, and how
they interrelate, as I share some nuggets from my quote file today. This first
one is from Neal A. Maxwell, whose language is something I have always admired.
I’m currently reading his biography. Anyway, this is from a talk in 1978.
We are
now entering a period of incredible ironies. Let us cite but one of these
ironies which is yet in its subtle stages: we shall see in our time a maximum
if indirect effort made to establish irreligion as the state religion. It is
actually a new form of paganism that uses the carefully preserved and
cultivated freedoms of Western civilization to shrink freedom even as it
rejects the value essence of our rich Judeo-Christian heritage.
Brothers
and sisters, irreligion as the state religion would be the worst of all
combinations. Its orthodoxy would be insistent and its inquisitors inevitable.
Its paid ministry would be numerous beyond belief. Its Caesars would be
insufferably condescending. Its majorities—when faced with clear
alternatives—would make the Barabbas choice, as did a mob centuries ago when
Pilate confronted them with the need to decide.
Your
discipleship may see the time come when religious convictions are heavily
discounted. M. J. Sobran also observed, “A religious conviction is now a second-class
conviction, expected to step deferentially to the back of the secular bus, and
not to get uppity about it” (Human Life
Review, Summer 1978, p. 58). This new irreligious imperialism seeks to
disallow certain of people’s opinions simply because those opinions grow out of
religious convictions. Resistance to abortion will soon be seen as primitive.
Concern over the institution of the family will be viewed as untrendy and
unenlightened.—Neal A. Maxwell, “Meeting the Challenges of Today,” October 1978
Religion and Liberty are the two great objects
of defensive war. Conjoined, they unite all the feelings, and call forth all
the energies, of man…. Religion and liberty are the meat and the drink of the
body politic. Withdraw one of them, and it languishes, consumes, and dies. If
indifference to either at any time becomes the prevailing character of a
people, one half of their motives to vigorous defense is lost, and the hopes of
their enemies are proportionally increased. Here, eminently, they are inseparable.
Without religion we may possibly retain the freedom of savages, bears, and
wolves; but not the freedom of New-England. If our religion were gone, our
state of society would perish with it; and nothing would be left, which would
be worth defending. —Timothy Dwight, President of Yale University, “The Duty of
Americans, at the Present Crisis,” July 4, 1798
No compact among men…
can be pronounced everlasting and inviolable, and if I may so express myself,
that no Wall of words, that no mound of parchment can be so formed as to stand
against the sweeping torrent of boundless ambition on the one side, aided by
the sapping current of corrupted morals on the other.—George Washington, draft
of First Inaugural Address, April 1798
Heaven knows the proper price to attach
to something so celestial as freedom.— Thomas Payne
It was through and by the power of God, that the fathers of
this country framed the Declaration of Independence, and also that great
palladium of human rights, the Constitution of the United States. There is
nothing of a bigoted, narrow-contracted feeling about that instrument; it is
broad and comprehensive.—John Taylor, The
Constitution Is an Inspired Document, p. 644
Facts are stubborn things;
and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our
passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.—John Adams[i],
1770
If I
speak plainly, and in condemnation lay bare reprehensible practices and aims of
certain organizations, please do not think that I harbor ill-will or enmity in
my heart towards other United States citizens whose views on political policies
do not coincide with mine. But when acts and schemes are manifestly contrary to
the revealed word of the Lord, we feel justified in warning people against
them. We may be charitable and forbearing to the sinner, but must condemn the sin.—David
O. McKay, “Jesus’ Prayer for Unity,” General Conference, October 1939
I predict future
happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the
labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.—Thomas
Jefferson
The duty of a true patriot is to protect his
country from its government.—Thomas Payne
It has been fundamental to our way of life that charity
must be voluntary if it is to be charity. Compulsory benevolence is not
charity. Today’s egalitarians are using the federal government to redistribute
wealth in our society, not as a matter of voluntary charity, but as a matter of
right.—Ezra Taft Benson, This Nation
Shall Endure, p. 91
You cannot stop a decades-long march toward a
socialist and authoritarian state if the family breaks down. Those who say we
need to maintain a laser focus on government spending miss the forest for the
trees, or refuse to accept what the Founders embraced. If we balance the budget
and rein in government but do not rebuild and protect families, then the
popular will for government intervention will irresistibly grow over time.—Ken
Blackwell and Ken Klukowski, Resurgent:
How Constitutional Conservatism Can Save America
Freedom and religion endure together or perish alone.—Mitt
Romney, “Faith in America” speech, December 6, 2007
The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is
not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and
public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If “Thou shalt not
covet” and “Thou shalt not steal” were not commandments of Heaven, they must be
made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made
free.—John Adams, “Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United
States,” 1787
Basing state
policy on relative measures devolves into covetousness.
And as ’tis folly to suppose that princes will always be wise,
just and good, when we know that few have been able alone to bear the weight of
a government, or to resist the temptations to ill, that accompany an unlimited
power, it would be madness to presume they will for the future be free from
infirmities and vices....
If the public safety be provided, liberty and propriety
secured, justice administered, virtue encouraged, vice suppressed, and the true
interest of the nation advanced, the ends of government are
accomplished;--Algernon Sidney, Discourses
Concerning Government, pp. 319-320
Thus, the central problem of government, is a religious
one, and anyone who assumes he can form his political beliefs without
consulting his ethics, which have their basis in religious conviction, is
deceiving himself either about the true nature of government, or his moral
responsibility for its actions.—Elder H. Verlan Andersen, Many Are Called but Few Are Chosen
[i]
John Adams said this, in defense of British soldiers following the Boston Massacre.
However, it is also credited to Tobias George Smollett, who in turn was
translating a work, Gil Blas, from
French author Alain-René Lesage. The phrase may predate all of these.
I watched a 5-minute video clip of a talk given in 1978 by
one of my favorites: Neal A. Maxwell. His words are beautiful—extraordinarily well-phrased—and
the ideas he speaks of are even more beautiful.
As happens on YouTube, other videos of him popped up. So I
thought it might be worth spending a day sharing quotes from a couple of his
archived speeches.
“Meeting the Challenges of Today”
This first was a Devotional Speech (regular campus-wide weekly
speeches at BYU] from 1978. I was there the day he delivered this address. I
have a stack of 3x5 cards I kept notes on, and I managed to capsulize his
40-minute speech on two sides of a card. I need a magnifying glass to read it,
but several of the quotes below are in there. This was 39 years ago, and
looking at our world today, it appears both relevant and prophetic. Here is the 5-minute clip. Then come the quotes.
We are
now entering a period of incredible ironies. Let us cite but one of these
ironies which is yet in its subtle stages: we shall see in our time a maximum
if indirect effort made to establish irreligion as the state religion. It is
actually a new form of paganism that uses the carefully preserved and
cultivated freedoms of Western civilization to shrink freedom even as it
rejects the value essence of our rich Judeo-Christian heritage.
Brothers and sisters,
irreligion as the state religion would be the worst of all combinations. Its
orthodoxy would be insistent and its inquisitors inevitable. Its paid ministry
would be numerous beyond belief. Its Caesars would be insufferably
condescending. Its majorities—when faced with clear alternatives—would make the
Barabbas choice, as did a mob centuries ago when Pilate confronted them with
the need to decide.
[Quoting M. J.
Sobran]: It is startling to consider that a clause clearly protecting religion
can be construed as requiring that it be denied a status routinely granted to
educational and charitable enterprises, which have no overt constitutional
protection. Far from equalizing unbelief, secularism has succeeded in virtually
establishing it.
What the
secularists are increasingly demanding, in their disingenuous way, is that
religious people, when they act politically, act only on secularist grounds.
They are trying to equate acting on religion with establishing religion. And—I
repeat—the consequence of such logic is really to establish secularism. It is
in fact, to force the religious to internalize the major premise of secularism:
that religion has no proper bearing on public affairs. [Human Life Review,
Summer 1978, pp. 51–52, 60–61]
A religious
conviction is now a second-class conviction, expected to step deferentially to
the back of the secular bus, and not to get uppity about it (Human Life Review,
Summer 1978, p. 58).
In its
more harsh forms, as is always the case with those whose dogmatism is blinding,
the secular church will do what it can to reduce the influence of those who
still worry over standards such as those in the Ten Commandments. It is always
such an easy step from dogmatism to unfair play—especially so when the
dogmatists believe themselves to be dealing with primitive people who do not
know what is best for them. It is the secular bureaucrat’s burden, you see.
There is occurring a discounting of religiously-based
opinions. There may even be a covert and subtle disqualification of some for
certain offices in some situations, in an ironic “irreligious test” for office.
Our founding
fathers did not wish to have a state church established nor to have a
particular religion favored by government. They wanted religion to be free to
make its own way. But neither did they intend to have irreligion made into a
favored state church. Notice the terrible irony if this trend were to continue.
When the secular church goes after its heretics, where are the sanctuaries? To
what landfalls and Plymouth Rocks can future pilgrims go?
Will
we be able to rely for counterforce on value education in school systems that
are increasingly secularized? And if our governments and schools were to fail
us, would we be able to fall back upon the institution of the family, when so
many secular movements seek to shred it?
It may
well be, as our time comes to “suffer shame for his name” (Acts 5:41), that
some of this special stress will grow out of that portion of discipleship which
involves citizenship.
[This next quote references Lehi’s Dream, which I mentioned
in my last post.]
To go on clinging
to the iron rod in spite of the mockery and scorn that flow at us from the
multitudes in that great and spacious building seen by Father Lehi, which is
the “pride of the world,” is to disregard the shame of the world (1 Nephi 8:26–27, 33; 11:35–36). Parenthetically, why—really why—do the disbelievers who
line that spacious building watch so intently what the believers are doing?
Surely there must be other things for the scorners to do—unless, deep within
their seeming disinterest, there is interest.
Let us have integrity and not write checks with our
tongues which our conduct cannot cash.
Before the ultimate
victory of the forces of righteousness, some skirmishes will be lost. Even
these, however, must leave a record so that the choices before the people are
clear and let others do as they will in the face of prophetic counsel. There
will also be times, happily, when a minor defeat seems probable, that others
will step forward, having been rallied to righteousness by what we do. We will
know the joy, on occasion, of having awakened a slumbering majority of the
decent people of all races and creeds—a majority which was, till then,
unconscious of itself.
Even
when we face stern challenges and circumstances, “these are great days”![i] Our hearts need not fail
us. We can be equal to our challenges, including the aforementioned challenge
of the secular church.
When in
situations of stress we wonder if there is any more in us to give, we can be
comforted to know that God, who knows our capacity perfectly, placed us here to
succeed.
“Behold, the Enemy Is Combined”
I probably also heard this address live, broadcast rather
than in person. But no notes; I had three young children then, so my hands were
full. It is from the April 1993 General Conference of The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints. I recommended this speech and included the video in a post I wrote in May.
We must
not be intimidated or lose our composure even though the once morally
unacceptable is becoming acceptable, as if frequency somehow conferred
respectability!
Today, lust openly
parades as love, license cleverly poses as liberty, and raucous sounds
mockingly masquerade as music. Evil even calls itself good and often gets away
with it!
While I would not
shrink the circumference of freedom, the size of that circle is not the sole
measure of social well-being.
Hence, to exult,
as some do, over how much decadence is permissible at the edges ignores the
erosive effects of such grossness upon all within that circle.
Attributed
to historian Will Durant are these relevant words: “If the hunger for liberty
destroys order, the hunger for order will destroy liberty.” In this connection,
how can there possibly be a disturbing loss of individual impulse control
without a corresponding loss of collective freedom?
No wonder the adversary steadily promotes all the ancient sins, not
because he is uninventive but because his harvest is so constant.
In their search
for identity and belonging, too many supposedly savvy teens are now confined to
the solitude of a lonely gang. What is the lasting advantage of becoming
streetwise if one is on a street to nowhere?
We are
lathered with soap operas in need of nothing so much as soap—for the scrubbing
of themselves! Some seriously maintain that media violence and sleaze leave
consumers untouched. But revenue is received from commercials precisely because
of their influence. Either we deserve reforms, or sponsors deserve refunds!
Those who
mock the traditional moral values should heed this lesson of history from the
Durants:
“A youth
boiling with hormones will wonder why he should not give full freedom to his
sexual desires; and if he is unchecked by custom, morals, or laws, he may ruin
his life before he matures sufficiently to understand that sex is a river of
fire that must be banked and cooled by a hundred restraints if it is not to consume
both the individual and the group.” (Will and Ariel Durant, The Lessons of
History, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1968, pp. 35–36.)
Lasciviousness
wrongly celebrates the capacity to feel, so that people lose their capacity to
feel!
Even
with its flaws, the family is basic, and since no other institution can
compensate fully for failure in the family, why then, instead of enhancing the
family, the desperate search for substitutes? Why not require family impact
studies before proceeding with this program or that remedy, since of all
environmental concerns the family should be first? Hundreds of governmental
departments and programs protect various interests, but which one protects the
family?
Only reform and self-restraint, institutional and individual, can
finally rescue society! Only a sufficient number of sin-resistant souls can
change the marketplace.
We can have love
at home, even though the love of many waxes cold in the world. (See Matt.
24:12.) We can have inner peace even though peace has been taken from the
earth. (See D&C 1:35.)
We can keep the
seventh commandment even though others break it and mock it. We can render
individualized, humanitarian service even though the mass of human suffering
seems so overwhelming.
We can use our
tongues to speak the truth in love, while refusing to use them to bear false
witness. (See Eph. 4:15; Ex. 20:16.) We can stand fast “in holy places” even
though in the world “all things shall be in commotion.” (D&C 45:32; D&C88:91.)
Yes, “the enemy
is combined,” but when we are combined with the Lord’s “chariots of fire,” then
“they that be with us are more than they that be with them”! (2 Kgs. 6:16–17.)
Furthermore, the divine promise is that no weapon formed against the Lord’s
work shall finally prosper; this “is the heritage of the servants of the Lord.”
(Isa. 54:17; D&C 71:9.)
[i]
Quoting Winston Churchill, from an address at Harrow School, October 1941,
found in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations,
p. 923.
I keep a
fairly sizable quote file related to the concepts of the Spherical Model. Some
of the collection comes from current articles I’ve just read; others are old or
even historic. I noticed a few this week, coming from some older sources, that
seem suddenly very current. I haven’t had a quote day in a while, so I thought
it was time to share these. Good thoughts never grow old.
"The budget should be
balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the
arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance
to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt. People must
again learn to work instead of living on public assistance."—Cicero, 55 BC
To preserve our
independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must
take our choice between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we
run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities
and in our comforts, in our labors and in our amusements.
If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under
pretense of caring for them, they will be happy. The same prudence which in
private life would forbid our paying our money for unexplained projects,
forbids it in the disposition of public money. We are endeavoring to reduce the
government to the practice of rigid economy to avoid burdening the people and
arming the magistrate with a patronage of money which might be used to corrupt
the principles of our government.—Thomas Jefferson
In the end, more than freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a
comfortable life, and they lost it all—security, comfort, and freedom. When the
Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to
them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility,
then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.—Edward Gibbon,
historian
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we
falter and lose our freedoms, it
will be because we destroyed ourselves.—Abraham Lincoln
The government will take
from the “haves” and give to the “have nots.” Both have lost their freedom.
Those who “have,” lost their freedom to give voluntarily of their own free will
and in the way they desire. Those who “have not,” lost their freedom because
they did not earn what they received. They got “something for nothing,” and
they will neither appreciate the gift nor the giver of the gift.—Howard W.
Hunter, “TheLaw of the Harvest,” BYU
devotional address March 8, 1966
"Perhaps this gets to the root of the matter, to
the most fundamental distinction of all between East and West. The totalitarian
world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit,
thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship. The totalitarian
world finds even symbols of love and of worship an affront.”—Ronald Reagan in
“Tear Down This Wall” speech
If the natural tendencies of man are so bad that it is not
safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these
organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents
also belong to the human race? Or do
they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of
mankind?—Frédéric Bastiat
"In a real way, each generation of Americans has its chance to
re-ratify the Constitution. We can do this by abiding by its principles and by
leaving our own legacy to posterity; likewise, by both preserving our rights
and filling our responsibilities. ...Re-ratification will require statesmanship
among both people and leaders. Statesmanship does not treat symptoms, but cures
the underlying diseases. Our founding fathers did statesman-like work in 1776
and 1787. In our time, sadly, we seem preoccupied with treating symptoms, with
quick fixes, and with getting by a little longer." (Neal A. Maxwell,
"God Mend Thine Every Flaw," July 1993)
During his
1956 presidential campaign, a woman called out to Adlai Stevenson: “Senator,
you have the vote of every thinking person!” Stevenson called back: “That’s not
enough, madam, we need a majority!”—Adlai Stevenson quoted in “The Decline and
Fall of the American Empire” in Rabbi Pruzansky’s blog 11-7-2012
“The further a society
drifts from truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.”
