More on the Right Use of Pity
Either the day must come when joy prevails and all the makers of misery are no longer able to infect it: or else for ever and ever the makers of misery can destroy in others the happiness they reject for themselves. …
… The passion of Pity … the ache that draws men to concede what should not be conceded and to flatter when they should speak truth … that will die. It was used as a weapon by bad men against good ones: their weapon shall be broken. …
[The action of Pity is] … a weapon on the other side. … But it will not, at the cunning tears of Hell, impose on good the tyranny of evil. …
— C.S. Lewis, in The Great Divorce
On the Misuse of Pity
Pity was meant to be a spur that drives joy to help misery. But …. It can be used for a kind of blackmailing. Those who choose misery can hold joy up to ransom, by pity.
— C.S. Lewis, in The Great Divorce
An Interesting and Inspiring Statistic
When I start to feel like a failure, I like to remember the following little tidbit that I read somewhere several years ago:
Every article in National Geographic Magazine is accompanied by about thirty pictures, taken by some of the best photographers in the world. Those thirty “successful” shots are culled from an average of something like fifteen thousand (15,000!) shots that the photographer took specifically for that story. In other words, approximately two-tenths of one percent of the photographer’s attempts are successful.
That sure puts my failures into perspective.
The Greatest Moment of Your Life
The great moments, when the world cheers, are not the moments that count. The ones that count are when it’s just you, and people have stopped believing in you. Those are the moments that define you.
— Bob Greene
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How very true. Think of all of those whom the world has “written off” as failures, and then consider how they rose above the ranks to heights of genius or personal triumph that surpassed anything anyone might ever have dreamed.
Edison, labeled retarded by his school-teachers, who went on to invent the light bulb (among many other things).
Semmelwiess, ridiculed by his doctor colleagues for his insistence on washing hands between patients, who kept up his practise and has now been praised for having the courage to insist on cleanliness — the forerunner of our modern demands for sterility in medical practise.
Leeuwenhoek, initally laughed to scorn for his insistence that his specially-ground lenses revealed “animalcules” in his water, tooth scrapings, and other sources. He discovered blood cells, sperm cells, bacteria, foraminifera, nematodes, rotifers, and many of the other “invisible” beings that inhabit the world.
So who’s to say? Perhaps the very thing that you are being ridiculed for, rejected for, persecuted for, today may become the thing that you are praised and immortalised for tomorrow.
On Love
Love works no ill against his neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.
— The Bible, Romans 13:10
Don’t Panic!
Panic makes a small fumble worse.
— Sally Koslow, in “Surprising Secrets to Unshakeable Confidence,” Reader’s Digest, February 2006
Good Government
A king who has good judgment establishes a land, but a king who receives gifts overthrows it.
— The Holy Bible, Proverbs 29:4
The Law of Sowing and Reaping
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked: whatever seeds a person plants, that crop is what the person will harvest.
— The Holy Bible, Galatians 6:7
Ending Contention
Where there is no wood, the fire goes out; likewise, where there is no talebearer, strife ceases.
— The Bible, Proverbs 26:20
It’s Okay to Say No
The inability to say no to the bad is pervasive. Not only does it keep us from refusing evil in our lives, it often keeps us from recognizing evil.
— Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend, in Boundaries