Quotation Saturday

1 Cor. 4:14 I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you.

 CHARMING

All charming people have something to conceal, usually their total dependence on the appreciation of others.

~ Cyril Connelly

“With mortal age comes the immense need for childish charms. Like a fine wine, sweetens with maturity.”
~ Rae Lori

“Don't rush to design your face to look beautiful, attractive and charming. Rather, be quicker to decorate your mind to appear as goal-oriented, passion-embedded and action-driven.”
~ Israelmore Ayivor

“If you look up "charming" in the dictionary, you'll see that it not only has references to strong attraction, but to spells and magic. Then again, what are liars if not great magicians?”
~ Deb Caletti

DECEITFUL

“It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.”
~ Noël Coward

“The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.”
~ William Shakespeare

“Mindfulness helps us get better at seeing the difference between what’s happening and the stories we tell ourselves about what’s happening, stories that get in the way of direct experience. Often such stories treat a fleeting state of mind as if it were our entire and permanent self.”
~ Sharon Salzberg, Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation

“Never pretend to be something you are not, especially to be accepted. Be loved for who you are, it will be tough at times but worth it.”
~ Isabella Poretsis

CONSCIENCE

“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”
~ Martin Luther King Jr.

“Your conscience is the measure of the honesty of your selfishness.
Listen to it carefully.”
~ Richard Bach

“The Roots of Violence: Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice, Politics without principles."
(Young India, 22 October 1925)”
~ Mahatma Gandhi

“Through pride we are ever deceiving ourselves. But deep down below the surface of the average conscience a still, small voice says to us, something is out of tune. ”
~ C.G. Jung

PRIDE

“A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”
~ C.S. Lewis

“Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need. ”
~ Khalil Gibran

“All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.”
~ Sophocles

“When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures bristling with prejudice and motivated by pride and vanity.”
~ Dale Carnegie

BELOVED

“Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection. Success, popularity, and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection. When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity, and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions. The real trap, however, is self-rejection. As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me, as soon as I am rejected, left alone, or abandoned, I find myself thinking, "Well, that proves once again that I am a nobody." ... [My dark side says,] I am no good... I deserve to be pushed aside, forgotten, rejected, and abandoned. Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the "Beloved." Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence.”
~ Henri J.M. Nouwen

“Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion.”
~ Brennan Manning

“To ignore, repress, or dismiss our feelings is to fail to listen to the stirrings of the Spirit within our emotional life. Jesus listened. In John's Gospel we are told that Jesus was moved with the deepest emotions (11:33)... The gospel portrait of the beloved Child of Abba is that of a man exquisitely attuned to His emotions and uninhibited in expressing them. The Son of Man did not scorn or reject feelings as fickle and unreliable. They were sensitive antennae to which He listened carefully and through which He perceived the will of His Father for congruent speech and action.”
~ Brennan Manning