Good day, dear reader!
As many who know me can attest, I am, by nature, a very visual person. Because of this, I really enjoy various descriptive figures of speech and tend to use them vigorously. For me, it doesn’t matter if it’s an allegory, homily, metaphor, parable, or simile; just as long as the words paint pictures on the canvas of my mind. I am also fond of quotations. My feelings on the subject are simple: if someone before me has expressed a concept in an eloquent, succinct manner, why should I try to change it? I am, however, careful to always provide attributions when I can.
To this end, I have decided in this post to share some of the words by which I have always tried to live my life, as well as things that provide much of the mortar for the foundation of my personal philosophy. So, let’s start with what is probably the foundation of my life and the key to most everything I do: The Golden Rule.
The Golden Rule is the common name for the homily taken from Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31 in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. Basically, it says, “Treat other people as you wish others to treat you, not as they actually treat you.” Throughout my life, while I will always defend myself, I have gone out of my way to try to avoid ‘turning the tables’ on some miscreant out of a desire for retribution or vengeance and harm them the way they harmed me, no matter how tempting it was to do so. I will admit, however, that there were a couple of instances in my life when I gave in to that temptation. Some variations and corollaries to The Golden Rule include:
Ø “Kill them with Kindness.” My father used to use this one in regard to people being verbally abusive (or ‘being ugly,’ as he called it). It’s also related to another Biblical homily, “turn the other cheek.”
Ø "Do nothing to others you would not have done to you” – Confucius
Ø “We should behave to others as we wish others to behave to us.” – Aristotle
Ø “Hurt not others with that which pains yourself.” – The Buddha Siddhartha Gautama
Ø “What you dislike for yourself, do not do to anyone.” – a summary of the Torah by Rabbi Hillel
Another lesson from the Christian Bible which is foundational to my life is Matthew 5:3-12; Christ’s teachings that have become known as, “The 10 Beatitudes:”
- “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
- “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
- “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
- “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
- “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
- “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
- “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.
- “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
- “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
- “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
Here are some more of the ‘words of wisdom’ I try to apply to my life:
Ø "If your mind can conceive it, and if you can believe it, you can achieve it." - Mary Kay Ash
Ø"Dance with the one that brung ya." - Will Rogers
Ø“Failure is not an option.” – Gene Kranz
Ø“FORTE EST VINU; FORTIOR EST REX; FORTIORES SUNT MULIERES; SUP OM VINCIT VERITAS.” – The only inscription carved into the walls of Rosslyn Chapel in Roslin, Midlothian, Scotland, by the Chief Master Mason in charge at the instructions of Sir William St. Clair, Earl of Roslin, around 1447 AD. The approximate English translation is, “Wine is strong; the King is stronger; women are stronger still; but Truth conquers all.” (The Latin is the Lombardic variation, explaining the grammatic errors [‘SUP’ should be ‘SUPER’’; ‘OM’ should be ‘OMNIA’.]. Also, it is in all Caps because Latin did not have lower-case letters; I am not shouting.)
Ø“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” – John Wayne
Ø"I define manhood simply: Men should be tough, fair, and courageous - never petty, never looking for a fight, but never backing down from one either." - John Wayne
Ø“Compromise where you can. Where you can't, don't. Even if everyone is telling you that something wrong is something right. Even if the whole world is telling you to move, it is your duty to plant yourself like a tree, look them in the eye, and say, 'No, *you* move'." – Sharon Carter, attributed to Peggy Carter, in the motion picture, Captain America: Civil War, written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely - © 2016 Marvel Entertainment
Ø"Drill sergeants know how to deal with bullies... 'Want to stop a bully? Man the fuck up and punch that motherfucker in the throat! Problem solved.'" - from Awesome Sh*t My Drill Sergeant Said: Wit and Wisdom from America’s Finest by Dan Caddy © 2015 by HarperCollins Publishing
Ø"Life's what happens while you're making plans." - John Lennon
Ø“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” – Lord Acton
Ø“Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” – George Santayana
Ø“With great power comes great responsibility.” – Stan Lee
There is also, “A Decalogue of Canons for Observation in Practical Life" by Thomas Jefferson:
- “Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day.
- “Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
- “Never spend your money before you have it.
- “Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear to you.
- “Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst and cold.
- “We never repent of having eaten too little.
- “Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.
- “How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened.
- “Take things always by their smooth handle.
- “When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, an hundred."
Now, if you know me or have read many of my previous posts here, you’ll know that my all-time favorite author is Robert A. Heinlein. I actually consider him to be the finest author of the Twentieth Century. In his book, Time Enough for Love, the main character, Lazarus Long, aka Woodrow Wilson Smith, was asked to record some thoughts and advice to be shared with future generations. Heinlein broke up the character’s reflections into two “Intermissions” which were placed between chapters. They became so popular that they were eventually published separately as, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long. Some are serious and some are humorous, and they are a mix of experiential observations, philosophy, and even politics. Here are my favorites that have helped to shape my personal philosophy:
Ø "It’s amazing how much ‘mature wisdom’ resembles being too tired.”
Ø “Men are more sentimental than women. It blurs their thinking.”
Ø “Certainly the game is rigged. Don’t let that stop you; if you don’t bet, you can’t win.”
Ø “Always listen to experts. They’ll tell you what can’t be done and why. Then do it!”
Ø “If it can’t be expressed in figures, it is not science; it is opinion.”
Ø “A ‘pacifist male’ is a contradiction in terms. Most self-described ‘pacifists’ are not pacific; they simply assume false colors. When the wind changes, they hoist the Jolly Roger.”
Ø “Nursing does not diminish the beauty of a woman’s breasts; it enhances their charm by making them look lived in and happy.”
Ø “A generation which ignores history has no past…and no future.”
Ø “If you don’t like yourself, you can’t like other people.”
Ø “Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes. Keep this in mind; it may offer a way to make him your friend. If not, you can kill him without hate…and quickly.”
Ø “Cheops’ Law: Nothing is ever built on schedule or within budget.”
Ø “All societies are based on rules to protect pregnant women and young children. All else is surplusage, excrescence, adornment, luxury, or folly which can…and must…be dumped in emergency to preserve this prime function. As racial survival is the only universal morality, no other basic is possible. Attempts to formulate a “perfect society” on any foundation other than “women and children first!” is not only witless, it is automatically genocidal. Nevertheless, starry-eyed idealists (all of them male) have tried endlessly…and no doubt will keep on trying.”
Ø “A brute kills for pleasure. A fool kills from hate.”
Ø “When the need arises…and it does…you must be able to shoot your own dog. Don’t farm it out…that doesn’t make it nicer, it makes it worse.”
Ø “Sex should be friendly. Otherwise stick to mechanical toys; it’s more sanitary.”
Ø “Never appeal to a man’s “better nature.” He may not have one. Invoking his “self-interest” gives you more leverage.”
Ø “Little girls, like butterflies, need no excuse.”
Ø “You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don’t ever count on having both at once.”
Ø “Avoid making irrevocable decisions while tired or hungry. N.b.: Circumstances can force your hand. So think ahead!”
Ø “Place your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark.”
Ø “An elephant: a mouse built to government specifications.”
Ø “In a mature society, ‘civil servant’ is semantically equal to ‘civil master.’”
Ø “A woman is not property, and husbands who think otherwise are living in a dreamworld.”
Ø “There are hidden contradictions within the minds of people who ‘love nature’ while deploring the ‘artificialities’ with which ‘Man has spoiled “Nature.”’ The obvious contradiction lies in their choice of words, which imply that Man and his artifacts are not part of ‘Nature’, but beavers and their dams are. But the contradictions go deeper than this prima-facie absurdity. In declaring his love for a beaver dam (erected by beavers for beaver’s purposes) and his hatred for dams erected by men (for the purpose of men) the ‘Naturist’ reveals his hatred for his own race…i.e., his own self-hatred. In the case of ‘Naturists’ such self—hatred is understandable; they are such a sorry lot. But hatred is too strong an emotion to feel toward them; pity and contempt are the most they rate. As for me, willy-nilly I am a man, not a beaver, and H. Sapiens is the only race I have or can have. Fortunately for me, I like being part of a race made up of men and women…it strikes me as a fine arrangement and perfectly “natural.” Believe it or not, there were ‘Naturists’ who opposed the first flight to old Earth’s Moon as being ‘unnatural’ and a ‘despoiling of nature.’”
Ø “Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How’s that again? I missed something.”
Ø “Autocracy is based on the assumption that one man is wiser than a million men. Let’s play that over again, too. Who decides?”
Ø “What are the facts? Again and again and again…what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what ‘the stars foretell,’ avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable ‘verdict of history’…what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!”
Ø “Courage is the compliment of fear. A man who is fearless cannot be courageous. (He is also a fool.)”
Ø “The two highest achievements of the human mind are the twin concepts of ‘loyalty’ and ‘duty.’ Whenever these twin concepts fall into disrepute--get out of there fast. You may possibly save yourself, but it is too late to save that society. It is doomed.”
Ø “People who go broke in a big way never miss any meals. It is the poor jerk who is shy half a slug who must tighten his belt.”
Ø “The truth of a proposition has nothing to do with its credibility. And vice versa.”
Ø “Moving parts in rubbing contact require lubrication to avoid excessive wear. Honorifics and formal politeness provide lubrication where people rub together. Often the very young, the untraveled, the naive, the unsophisticated deplore these formalities as ‘empty,’ ‘meaningless,’ or ‘dishonest,’ and scorn to use them. No matter how ‘pure’ their motives, they thereby throw sand into machinery that does not work too well at best.”
Ø “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects!”
Ø “The more you love, the more you can love…and the more intensely you love. Nor is there any limit on how many you can love. If a person had Time Enough, he could Love all of the majority who are decent and just.”
Ø “If men were the automatons that behaviorists claim they are, the behaviorist psychologists could not have invented the amazing nonsense called ‘behaviorist psychology.’ So they are wrong from scratch…as clever and as wrong as phlogiston chemists.”
Ø “The shamans are forever yacking about their snake-oil ‘miracles.’ I prefer the real McCoy…a pregnant woman.”
Ø “If the universe has any purpose more important than topping the woman you love and making a baby with her hearty help, I’ve never heard of it.”
Ø “A touchstone to determine the actual worth of an ‘intellectual’…find out how he feels about astrology.”
Ø “Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed.”
Ø “There is no such thing as ‘Social Gambling.’ Either you are there to cut the other bloke’s heart out and eat it…or you’re a sucker. If you don’t like this choice, don’t gamble.”
Ø “A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity.”
Ø “You live and learn or you don’t live long.”
Ø “Whenever women have insisted on absolute equality with men, they have invariably wound up on the dirty end of the stick. What they are and what they can do makes them superior to men, and their proper tactic is to demand special privileges…all the traffic will bear. They should never settle merely for equality. For women, ‘equality’ is a disaster.”
Ø “Peace is an extension of war by political means. Plenty of elbow room is pleasanter…and much safer.”
Ø “One man’s ‘magic’ is another man’s engineering. ‘Supernatural’ is a null word.”
Ø “The phrase ‘we (I) (you) simply must…’ designates something that need not be done. ‘That goes without saying’ is a red warning. ‘Of course’ means you had best check it yourself. These small-change cliches and others like them, when read correctly, are reliable channel markers.”
Ø “Do not handicap your children by making their lives easy.”
Ø “Never underestimate the power of human stupidity!”
Ø “Always tell her she is beautiful, especially if she is not.”
Ø “If you are part of a society that votes, then do so. There may be no candidates and no measures you want to vote for...but there are certain to be ones you want to vote against. In case of doubt, vote against. By this rule you will rarely go wrong. If this is too blind for your taste, consult some well-meaning fool (there is always one around) and ask his advice. Then vote the other way. This enables you to be a good citizen (if such is your wish) without spending the enormous amount of time on it that truly intelligent exercise of franchise requires.”
Ø “Sovereign ingredient for a happy marriage: Pay cash or do without. Interest charges not only eat up a household budget; awareness of debt eats up domestic felicity.”
Ø “Another ingredient for a happy marriage: Budget the luxuries first!”
Ø “And still another: See to it that she has her own desk…then keep your hands off it!”
Ø “And another: In a family argument, if it turns out you are right, apologize at once!”
Ø “And one more: Rub her feet.”
Ø “To stay young requires unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods.”
Ø “Does history record any case in which the majority was right?”
Ø “When the fox gnaws…smile!”
Ø “A ‘critic’ is a man who creates nothing and thereby feels qualified to judge the work of creative people. There is logic in this: he is unbiased…he hates all creative people equally.”
Ø “Money is truthful. If a man speaks of his honor, make him pay cash.”
Ø “Never frighten a little man. He’ll kill you.”
Ø “Only a sadistic scoundrel…or a fool…tells the bald truth on social occasions.”
Ø “To be ‘matter of fact’ about the world is to blunder into fantasy…and dull fantasy at that, as the real world is strange and wonderful.”
Ø “Touch is the most fundamental sense. A baby experiences it, all over, before he is born and long before he learns to use sight, hearing, or taste, and no human ever ceases to need it. Keep your children short on pocket money…but long on hugs.”
Ø “Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny.”
Ø “The greatest productive force is human selfishness.”
Ø “A whore should be judged by the same criteria as other professionals offering services for pay, such as dentists, lawyers, hairdressers, physicians, plumbers, etc. Is she professionally competent? Does she give good measure? Is she honest with her clients? It is possible that the percentage of honest and competent whores is higher than that of plumbers and much higher than that of lawyers. And enormously higher than that of professors.”
Ø “Expertise in one field does not carry over into other fields. But experts often think so. The narrower their field of knowledge the more likely they are to think so.”
Ø “Never try to out stubborn a cat.”
Ø “Tilting at windmills hurts you more than the windmills.”
Ø “Yield to temptation, it may not pass your way again.”
Ø “Waking a person unnecessarily should not be considered a capital crime. For a first offense, that is.”
Ø “’Go to hell!’ or other insult direct is all the answer a snoopy question rates.”
Ø “A man does not insist on physical beauty in a woman who builds up his morale. After a while he realizes that she is beautiful…he just hadn’t noticed it at first.”
Ø “A skunk is better company than a person who prides himself on being ‘frank.’”
Ø “’All’s fair in love and war’…what a contemptible lie!”
Ø “Beware of the ‘Black Swan’ fallacy. Deductive logic is tautological; there is no way to get a new truth out of it, and it manipulates false statements as readily as true ones. If you fail to remember this, it can trip you--with perfect logic. The designers of the earliest computers called this the “GIGO Law,” i.e., ‘Garbage in, garbage out.’”
Ø “Inductive logic is much more difficult…but can produce new truths.”
Ø "Natural laws have no pity.”
Ø “Freedom begins when you tell Mrs. Grundy to go fly a kite.”
Ø “If ‘everybody knows’ such-and-such, then it ain’t so, by at least ten thousand to one.”
Ø “Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other sins are invented nonsense. (Hurting yourself is not sinful--just stupid.)”
Ø “Being generous is inborn; being altruistic is a learned perversity. No resemblance…”
Ø “Beware of altruism. It is based on self-deception, the root of all evil.”
Ø “If tempted by something that feels ‘altruistic’ examine your motives and root out that self-deception. Then, if you still want to do it, wallow in it!”
Ø “It is impossible for a man to love his wife wholeheartedly without loving all women somewhat. I suppose that the con¬verse must be true of women.”
Ø “You can go wrong by being too skeptical as readily as by being too trusting.”
Ø “Formal courtesy between husband and wife is even more important than it is between strangers.”
Ø “Anything free is worth what you pay for it.”
Ø “Don’t store garlic near other victuals.”
Ø “Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get.”
Ø “Pessimist by policy, optimist by temperament…it is possible to be both. How? By never taking an unnecessary chance and by minimizing risks you can’t avoid. This permits you to play the game happily, untroubled by the certainty of the outcome.”
Ø “’I came, I saw, she conquered.’ (The original Latin seems to have been garbled.)”
Ø “A committee is a life form with six or more legs and no brain.”
Ø “Animals can be driven crazy by placing too many in too small a pen. Homo sapiens is the only animal that voluntarily does this to himself.”
Ø “Don’t try to have the last word. You might get it.”
One other philosophical concept originated and promoted by Robert Heinlein that I have incorporated into my life is “Pay it Forward.” Basically, this is the idea that, if you help someone out in some way…whether it is with physical labor, a meal, or something more intrinsic…if they ask how they can repay you, you simply say to them, “if at some time in the future you come across someone in need, you will repay me by helping them out.” In other words, don’t pay the debt back, pay the debt forward.
Finally, I do try to stay cognizant about what is going on in the world politically so that I know what I need to do to protect my family, so here are a few politically-oriented quotes I embrace:
Ø “Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them.” – George Orwell
Ø "When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the Republic." - Benjamin Franklin
Ø "I am for doing good to the poor but I differ in opinion about the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor is, not making them easy in poverty, but leading them or driving them out of it." - Benjamin Franklin
Ø "It would be a hard government that should tax its people one tenth part of their income." - Benjamin Franklin
Ø "Today, when a concerted effort is made to obliterate this point, it cannot be repeated too often that the Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals - that it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government - that it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizens' protection against the government." - Ayn Rand
Ø "So you think that money is the root of all evil? Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?" - Francisco D'Anconia in Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Ø "The nine worst words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'" - Ronald Regan
Ø "Never blame a legislative body for not doing something. When they do nothing, that don't hurt anybody. When they do something is when they become dangerous." - Will Rogers
Ø “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence – it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.” – Earliest attribution found is to W.M. in the article, “Liberty and Government”, published in The Christian Science Journal, Vol. XX, Number 8, November 1902
Ø “Our legislators are not sufficiently apprised of the rightful limits of their power; that their true office is to declare and enforce only our natural rights and duties, and to take none of them from us. No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another; and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him; every man is under the natural duty of contributing to the necessities of the society; and this is all the laws should enforce on him; and, no man having a natural right to be the judge between himself and another, it is his natural duty to submit to the umpirage of an impartial third. When the laws have declared and enforced all this, they have fulfilled their functions, and the idea is quite unfounded, that on entering into society we give up any natural right. The trial of every law by one of these texts, would lessen much of the labors of our legislators, and lighten equally our municipal codes.” – Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Francis W. Gilmer, June 7, 1816 AD
Ø “Can the Liberty of a nation be thought secure if we remove the only firm basis, which is a conviction in the minds of the people that these Liberties are the gift of God not to be violated but with His wrath.” – Thomas Jefferson
Ø “There is no conceivable reason why all colored people should not be treated according to the merits of each individual. It is not only the plain duty, but also the interest of us all, to have every colored man take the place for which he is best fitted by education, character, ability, manners, and culture.” – Frederick Douglass
Ø “Nature does not make your existence depend upon me, or mine depend upon yours. I cannot walk upon your legs, or you upon mine. I cannot breathe for you, or you for me; I must breathe for myself, and you for yourself. We are distinct persons, and are each equally provided with faculties necessary to our individual existence.” _ Frederick Douglass in a letter to his former owner, Thomas Auld, 3 September 1848 AD
Ø “For in a republic, who is ‘the Country’? Is it the Government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the Government is merely a servant – merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its
prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn’t. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them. Who, then, is ‘the country’? Is it the newspaper? Is it the pulpit? Is it the school-superintendent? Why, these are mere parts of the country, not the whole of it; they have not command, they have only their little share in the command. They are but one in the thousand; it is in the thousand that command is lodged; they must determine what is right and what is wrong; they must decide who is a patriot and who isn’t. “In a monarchy, the king and his family are the country; in a republic it is the common voice of the people. Each of you, for himself, by himself and on his own responsibility, must speak. And it is a solemn and weighty responsibility, and not lightly to be flung aside at the bullying of pulpit, press, government, or the empty catch-phrases of politicians. Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn’t. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide it against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and your country – hold up your head! You have nothing to be ashamed of.” – Mark Twain from Letters from the Earth: Uncensored Writings, published posthumously in 1939 AD
Ø “God is not interested in merely freeing black men and brown men and yellow men, but God is interested in freeing the whole human race. We must work with determination to create a society, not where black men are superior and other men are inferior and vice versa, but a society in which all men will live together as brothers and
respect the dignity and worth of human personality.” – Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his commencement address entitled, Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution, given to Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH in 1965 AD
Ø I have a dream this afternoon that my four little children, that my four little children will not come up in the same young days that I came up within, but they will be judged on the basis of the content of their character, not the color of their skin.” – Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his Cobo Center speech, 23 June 1963 AD
Ø “What we know is they don’t like people who are poor that become wealthy, and they don’t like people who are wealthy and stay wealthy – so the only conclusion can be that they want people who are wealthy to become poor and people who are poor to stay poor.” – John Key, New Zealand businessman, commenting on socialist politicians.
Ø “Some people’s idea of Free Speech is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone says anything back, that is an outrage.” – Sir Winston Churchill
Ø “[The Labour Government has] the usual Socialist disease - they’ve run out of other people’s money.” (Sometimes paraphrased as, “The problem with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”) - Margaret Thatcher, 10 Oct 1975 AD, in her Speech to the Conservative Party Conference
Well, there you are…the inspirations for who I am as I write this. Some go back as far as the dawn of Western Civilization; some are more recent observations. However old, each of these quotations and sayings have spoken to something I believe at the core of my Soul. As I continue to “unlearn old falsehoods,” some of these may be replaced by others and new ones may be added. However, I do not make such revisions lightly. They have been…and will continue to be…the result of much reflection, rumination, and analysis. If anything I have included here inspires you, then I am glad I have shared them. After all, they are not mine to give or take, but I am happy to share anything that helps someone become a better person.
© 2009, 2024 James P. Rice
