Joseph Sullivan > Joseph's Quotes

“When He [God] talks of their losing their selves, He means only abandoning the clamour of self-will; once they have done that, He really gives them back all their personality, and boasts (I am afraid, sincerely) that when they are wholly His they will be more themselves than ever.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero

“It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.”
― Heraclitus

“To touch the soul of another human being is to walk on holy ground.”
― Stephen Covey

“Pessimism becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; it reproduces itself by crippling our willingness to act.”
― Howard Zinn, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times

“The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.”
― Mike Murdock

“Attack is the proof that your enemy anticipates your success.”
― Mike Murdock

“I seek a place that can never be destroyed, one that is pure, and that fadeth not away, and it is laid up in heaven, and safe there, to be given, at the time appointed, to them that seek it with all their heart. Read it so, if you will, in my book.”
― John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress

“Is there anything more worthy of our tongues and mouths than to speak of the things of God and Heaven?"
"I'm”
― John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress: From This World to That Which Is to Come

“Somebody said that it couldn’t be done
But he with a chuckle replied
That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one
Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it!

Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;
At least no one ever has done it;”
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat
And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure,
There are thousands to point out to you one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing
That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.”
― Edgar Albert Guest

“It is this that ruins churches, that you do not seek to hear sermons that touch the heart, but sermons that will delight your ears with their intonation and the structure of their phrases, just as if you were listening to singers and lute-players. And we preachers humor your fancies, instead of trying to crush them. We act like a father who gives a sick child a cake or an ice, or something else that is merely nice to eat--just because he asks for it; and takes no pains to give him what is good for him; and then when the doctors blame him says, 'I could not bear to hear my child cry.' . . . That is what we do when we elaborate beautiful sentences, fine combinations and harmonies, to please and not to profit, to be admired and not to instruct, to delight and not to touch you, to go away with your applause in our ears, and not to better your conduct.”
― John Chrysostom

“Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny.”
― Gandhi

“The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you choose, what you think and what you do is who you become.”
― Heraclitus

“The fact that you are still alive assures you that God has something for you to accomplish.”
― Rodney Winters, Go into the House

“It isn't how you die. It's what you live for.”
― Daniel Boone

“An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”
― Benjamin Franklin, The Way to Wealth: Ben Franklin on Money and Success

“Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world.”
― Napoleon Bonaparte

“Society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”
― Anonymous Greek Proverb

“My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.”
― George Washington

“Write what should not be forgotten.”
― Isabel Allende

“Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind. ”
― Mary Ellen Chase

“Were the whole realm of nature mine
That were an offering far too small
Love so amazing so divine
Demands my soul my life my all”
― Isaac Watts, The Psalms and Hymns of Isaac Watts: With All the Additional Hymns and Complete Indexes

“A childhood without books – that would be no childhood. That would be like being shut out from the enchanted place where you can go and find the rarest kind of joy.”
― Astrid Lindgren

“No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown.”
― William Penn

“It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying.”
― Joan of Arc

“Good, better, best. Never let it rest. 'Til your good is better and your better is best.”
― St. Jerome

“The Scriptures are shallow enough for a babe to come and drink without fear of drowning and deep enough for a theologians to swim in without ever touching the bottom" St. Jerome”
― St. Jerome

“My prayer is that when I die, all of hell rejoices that I am out of the fight.”
― CS Lewis