On All Things Working Together for Good…
God doesn’t plan the horrors. They happen. But God can come into them.
— Madeleine L’Engle, A Live Coal in the Sea
On God’s Mercy
But all the wickedness in the world which man may do or think is no more to the mercy of God than a live coal dropped in the sea.
— William Langland, as quoted by Madeleine L’Engle, A Live Coal in the Sea
Guilt and Freedom
It is only by accepting real guilt that I am able to feel free of guilt … if I am not free to accept guilt when I do wrong, then I am not free at all. If all my mistakes are excused, if there’s an alibi, a rationalization for every blunder, then I am not free at all. I have become subhuman.
— Madeleine L’Engle in The Summer of the Great-Grandmother
Be Yourself
Trying to be what I am not, and cannot be, is not only arrogant, it is stupid. … If I make myself a martyr to appease my false guilt, then I am falling into the age-old trap of pride.
— Madeleine L’Engle in The Summer of the Great-Grandmother
Real Love Isn’t Always Kind
… Love, in its own nature, demands the perfecting of the beloved…the mere “kindness” which tolerates anything except suffering in its object is, in that respect, at the opposite pole from Love.
— C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
Personal Worth
The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from self.
— Albert Einstein
On Communication
The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said.
— Peter Drucker
On Success
Victory belongs to the most persevering.
— Napoleon Bonaparte
Clearing Hurdles
You cannot leap a twenty-foot chasm with two ten-foot jumps.
— Chinese Proverb
The Successful Life
I can think of no better epitaph than “He helped others to better themselves.” If that’s what they end up saying about me, I will have been able to consider my life a success.
—Alex Lickerman, in his blog “Happiness in This World“