Carl's Quote of the Day

11/02/07

When you cannot make up your mind which of two evenly balanced courses of action you should take -- choose the bolder.

--William Joseph Slim in Chris Widener’s eZine i28

11/01/07

Patience is also a form of action.

--Auguste Rodin in Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 11/6/05

10/31/07

Never mistake motion for action.

--Ernest Hemingway in Leadership Wired v7i17

10/30/07

Your short-term actions multiplied by time equals your long-term accomplishments.

--Chris Widener's in his ezine i54

10/29/07

The purpose of man is in action not thought.

--Thomas Carlyle in Chris Widener's Ezine i54

Action – our theme this week at Carl’s Quote of the Day.

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10/26/07

A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight.

--Robertson Davies in Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 8/26/07

10/25/07

Old books that have ceased to be of service should no more be abandoned than should old friends who have ceased to give pleasure.

--Bernard Baruch in Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 8/19/07

10/24/07

To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.

--Edmund Burke

10/23/07

Wear the old coat and buy the new book.

--Austin Phelps

10/22/07

Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one's hand.

--Ezra Pound in Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 10/29/06

Our theme this week at Carl’s Quote of the Day is books. I’ll spare you the World Series quotes this week, except for this one:

What does a mama bear on the pill have in common with the World Series? No cubs.

--Harry Caray

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10/19/07

Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks.

--Phillips Brooks

10/18/07

When a wicked man dies, his hope perishes; all he expected from his power comes to nothing.

--Proverbs 11:7 NIV

10/17/07

The basic difference between physical and spiritual power is that men use physical power but spiritual power uses men.

--Justin Wroe Nixon

10/16/07

A wise man has great power, and a man of knowledge increases strength.

--Proverbs 24:5 NIV

10/15/07

Never measure God's unlimited power by your limited expectations.

--Our Daily Bread 2/20/04

Let’s take this power a little higher.

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10/12/07

“[The Republicans] swapped principle for power. They ended up with neither. They deserved to lose [the 2006 election].

--Alan Greenspan

10/11/07

The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.

--General Omar Bradley

10/10/07

We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. ... Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

--Abraham Lincoln

10/09/07

I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us that the less we use our power the greater it will be.

--Thomas Jefferson Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 7/2/06

10/08/07

My administration will not certainly be easy to myself. It will be happy, however, if it is honorable. The prosperity of it to the country will depend upon Heaven, and very little on anything in my power.

--John Adams quoted in John Adams by David McCullough

The Carl’s Quote of the Day power trip continues… er, I mean the power theme continues – this time with a political slant (and in chronological order).

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10/05/07

Power is like saltwater; the more you drink, the thirstier you get.

--Charles Colson

10/04/07

There is more power in the open hand than in the clenched fist.

--Unknown

10/03/07

He who has great power should use it lightly.

--Lucius Annaeus Seneca

10/02/07

Power will intoxicate the best hearts, as wine the strongest heads. No man is wise enough, nor good enough to be trusted with unlimited power.

--Charles Caleb Colton

10/01/07

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.

--Abraham Lincoln

This week’s theme is last week’s theme: power.

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09/28/07

What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?

--Matthew 16:26a NIV

09/27/07

Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't.

--Margaret Thatcher

09/26/07

It is a strange desire, to seek power, and to lose liberty; or to seek power over others, and to lose power over a man's self.

--Francis Bacon

09/25/07

Nothing causes self-delusion quite so readily as power.

--Liu Binyan

09/24/07

Only those who do not seek power are qualified to hold it.

--Plato

From today’s quote it might seem that this week’s theme is the upcoming (but still far off) US presidential election, but it’s really just power.

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09/21/07

The earth dries up and withers,

the world languishes and withers;

the heavens languish together with the earth.

The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants;

for they have transgressed laws, violated the statutes

broken the everlasting covenant.

- Isaiah 24:4-5 NRSV Bible

As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,

summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.

- Genesis 8:22 NRSV Bible

09/20/07

We find ourselves, one way or another, in the midst of a large-scale experiment to change the chemical construction of the stratosphere, even though we have no clear idea of what the biological or meteorological consequences may be.

--F. Sherwood Rowland, quoted in "Annals of Chemistry: In the Face of Doubt," The New Yorker, 9 Jun 86

Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.

--Mark Twain

09/19/07

You have destroyed nature with your industrial waste and gases more than any other nation in history. Despite this, you refuse to sign the Kyoto agreement so that you can secure the profit of your greedy companies and industries.

--Osama bin Laden, "Letter to the American People", 2.B.ix, cited in The Guardian Unlimited, 24 Nov 02

Not only is the Kyoto approach to global warming wrong-headed, the climate change establishment's suppression of dissent and criticism is little short of a scandal. The IPCC should be shut down... In Europe, where climate change absolutism is at its strongest, the quasi- religion of greenery in general and the climate change issue in particular have filled the vacuum of organised religion, with reasoned questioning of its mantras regarded as a form of blasphemy.

--Nigel Lawson, Prospect Magazine, November 2005

09/18/07

There is no debate among any statured scientists of what is happening. The only debate is the rate at which it is happening.

--James McCarthy, chair of the Advisory Committee on the Environment of

the International Committee of Scientific Unions, quoted by Ross Gelbspan in "The Heat Is On", 1997

Global warming is indeed a scam, perpetrated by scientists with vested interests, and in need of crash courses in geology, logic and the philosophy of science.

--Martin Keeley, BBC News, 6 Dec 04

09/17/07

Climate change is no longer a doomsday prophecy: it's a reality.

- Astrid Heiberg, president of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, quoted in Grist Magazine, 23 Jun 99

The whole debate seems to me to be a religious sideshow. Regardless of what you think about global warming, there are lots of good reasons to avoid burning fossil fuels. But the global-warming discussion in the

media is a consensus identity narrative designed to achieve political ends, not an effort to find facts or protect the environment.

--Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit, 12 August 07

For my last week as guest editor, we'll run hot and cold on global warming.

Best regards,

Jeffrey

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09/13/07

Football is like life - it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.

--Vince Lombardi

Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.

--Vince Lombardi

Two quotes from Vince Lombardi, legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers and namesake of the Lombardi Trophy, awarded to the winner of the Super Bowl. His 9-1 postseason record is still the best record of any NFL coach with as many postseason games.

09/12/07

I am delighted to have you play football. I believe in rough, manly sports. But I do not believe in them if they degenerate into the sole end of any one's existence. I don't want you to sacrifice standing well in your studies to any over-athleticism; and I need not tell you that character counts for a great deal more than either intellect or body in winning success in life. Athletic proficiency is a mighty good servant, and like so many other good servants, a mighty bad master.

- Theodore Roosevelt, in a letter to his son

09/11/07

Football is an honest game. It's true to life. It's a game about sharing. Football is a team game. So is life.

- Joe Namath

09/10/07

Baseball is what we were; football is what we have become.

- Mary McGrory

Well it's Monday night and we're ready to rock!

Time to get all the hits, the bangs and the blocks.

It's the game of the week that's comin' your way.

The Bengals and the Ravens are ready to play.

We gotta get ready, we gotta get right

Cause Monday Night Football kicks off tonight!

So get ready. I mean, get ready.

Are you ready for some football?! A Monday night party!

- Hank Williams, Jr. (parodying his own song, "All My Rowdy Friends Are Comin' Over Tonight")

We have an unfamiliar theme for this time of year here at Carl's Quote of the Day: football. The regular season is now underway. The way my dad feels about baseball is how I feel about football.

Guest quotesmith,

Jeffrey

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09/07/07

All modern men are descended from a worm-like creature, but it shows more on some people.

--Will Cuppy

09/06/07

There are many subtle variants of theistic evolution, but a typical version rests upon the following premises:

1. The universe came into being out of nothingness, approximately 14 billion years ago.

2. Despite massive improbabilities, the properties of the universe appear to have been precisely tuned for life.

3. While the precise mechanism of the origin of life on earth remains unknown, once life arose, the process of evolution and natural selection permitted the development of biological diversity and complexity over very long periods of time.

4. Once evolution got under way, no special supernatural intervention was required.

5. Humans are part of this process, sharing a common ancestor with the great apes.

6. But humans are also unique in ways that defy evolutionary explanation and point to our spiritual nature. This includes the existence of the Moral Law (the knowledge of right and wrong) and the search for God that characterizes all human cultures throughout history.

--Francis Collins in The Language of God

09/05/07

The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.

--Albert Einstein quoted in Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 4/17/05

09/04/07

The distinction between evolution and evolutionism is of extreme relevance. Michael Ruse’s recent The Evolution-Creation Struggle sharply distinguishes between the fact of evolution by natural selection, including the theoretical explanations for this fact, and evolutionism as a naturalistic worldview with the characteristics of a secular religion.

--Gennaro Auletta "A new arms race"

09/03/07

The human mind is not capable of grasping the Universe. It is like a little child entering a huge library. The walls are covered to the ceilings with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written these books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. But the child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books…a mysterious order, which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects.

--Albert Einstein quoted in Daily Dig 11/21/04

I just can’t evolve past this theme… evolution… again.

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08/31/07

To know the mighty works of God; to comprehend His wisdom and majesty and power; to appreciate, in degree, the wonderful working of His laws, surely all this must be a pleasing and acceptable mode of worship to the Most High, to whom ignorance cannot be more grateful than knowledge.

--Copernicus quoted by Francis Collins in The Language of God

08/30/07

The God of the Bible is also the God of the genome. He can be worshiped in the cathedral or in the laboratory. His creation is majestic, awesome, intricate, and beautiful—and it cannot be at war with itself. Only we imperfect humans can start such battles. And only we can end them.

--Francis Collins in The Language of God

08/29/07

Science is not the only way of knowing. The spiritual worldview provides another way of finding truth. Scientists who deny this would be well advised to consider the limits of their own tools, as nicely represented in a parable told by the astronomer Arthur Eddington. He described a man who set about to study deep-sea life using a net that had a mesh size of three inches. After catching many wild and wonderful creatures from the depths, the man concluded that there are no deep-sea fish that are smaller than three inches in length? If we are using the scientific net to catch our particular version of truth, we should not be surprised that it does not catch the evidence of spirit.

--Francis Collins in The Language of God

08/28/07

Steven Weinberg, a Nobel laureate in physics, warned that “the world needs to wake up from its long nightmare of religious belief … Anything that we scientists can do to weaken the hold of religion should be done and may in the end be our greatest contribution to civilization.”

Lawrence M. Krauss, a physicist at Case Western Reserve University known for his staunch opposition to teaching creationism, found himself in the unfamiliar role of playing the moderate. “I think we need to respect people’s philosophical notions unless those notions are wrong,” he said.

“The Earth isn’t 6,000 years old,” he said. “The Kennewick man was not a Umatilla Indian.” But whether there really is some kind of supernatural being — Dr. Krauss said he was a nonbeliever — is a question unanswerable by theology, philosophy or even science. “Science does not make it impossible to believe in God,” Dr. Krauss insisted. “We should recognize that fact and live with it and stop being so pompous about it.”

--George Johnson in “A Free-for-All on Science and Religion” New York Times

08/27/07

We [exist] because one odd group of fishes had a peculiar fin anatomy that could transform into legs for terrestrial creatures; because the earth never froze entirely during an ice age; because a small and tenuous species, arising in Africa a quarter of a million years ago, has managed, so far, to survive by hook and by crook. We may yearn for a 'higher' answer--but none exists.

--Stephen Jay Gould, a Harvard paleontologist who is regarded as an eminent authority on how life began. [quoted in Our Daily Bread 8/10/99]

Our theme this week at Carl’s Quote of the Day as evolved to … “evolution.”

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08/24/07

It is a curious phenomenon that God has made the hearts of the poor, rich and those of the rich, poor.

--Vinoba Bhave in Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 9/9/06

08/23/07

God often empties our hands to fill our heart.

--Our Daily Bread 05/21/05

08/22/07

In a full heart there is room for everything, and in an empty heart there is room for nothing.

--Antonio Porchia

08/21/07

It's better to give others a piece of your heart than a piece of your mind.

--Our Daily Bread 08/12/04

08/20/07

Let your heart guide you. It whispers, so listen closely.

--The Land before Time (movie)

“Heart, ya gotta have heart…” as the theme this week for Carl’s Quote of the Day.

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08/17/07

I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.

--Jorge Luis Borges

08/16/07

A library of wisdom is more precious than all wealth, and all things that are desirable cannot be compared to it. Whoever therefore claims to be zealous of truth, of happiness, of wisdom or knowledge, must become a lover of books.

--Richard de Bury

08/15/07

We must form our minds by reading deep rather than wide.

--Marcus Fabius Quintilian

Actually I don’t believe in the “tyranny of the or” – read both deep and wide.

08/14/07

If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist hammering on our skull, why then do we read it? ... A book must be like an ice-axe to break the frozen sea within us.

--Franz Kafka in Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 7/1/07

08/13/07

Leaders are readers.

--Charles “Tremendous” Jones

If leaders are readers, then our theme this week at Carl’s Quote of the Day should be “books.”

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08/10/07

Things come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.

--Abraham Lincoln

08/09/07

If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.

--Milton Berle

08/08/07

If there is no wind, row.

--Latin Proverb

08/07/07

Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done and why. Then do it.

--Robert A. Heinlein in Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 5/6/07

08/06/07

Most success comes from ignoring the obvious.

--Trevor Holdsworth

Success, failure, and opportunity comprise our theme this week at Carl’s Quote of the Day.

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08/03/07

The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people.

--Woodrow Wilson in Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 1/28/07

08/02/07

How can I add value to the person I lead?

--John Maxwell "Value Added" ChristianityToday.com

08/01/07

A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better.

--Jim Rohn

07/31/07

The first duty of a leader is to make himself be loved without courting love. To be loved without 'playing up' to anyone--even to himself.

--Andre Malraux in Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 10/29/06

07/30/07

Leadership is influence—nothing more, nothing less.

--John Maxwell in Leadership Wired v9i22

Leadership also is… our theme this week at Carl’s Quote of the Day.

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07/27/07

You can’t spell integrity without the word grit ...

--John Maxwell in Leadership Wired v9i21

07/26/07

Nothing more completely baffles one who is full of tricks and duplicity than straight forward and simple integrity in another.

--Charles Caleb Colton

07/25/07

A person is not given integrity. It results from the relentless pursuit of honesty at all times.

--Unknown

07/24/07

Some persons are likeable in spite of their unswerving integrity.

--Don Marquis quoted by Dr. Mardy 12/28/03

07/23/07

Integrity has no need of rules.

--Albert Camus

…or does it. Find out this week as Carl’s Quote of the Day quotes “integrity.”

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07/20/07

No one is a failure until they blame somebody else.

--Charles "Tremendous" Jones

07/19/07

Good people are good because they've come to wisdom through failure. We get very little wisdom from success, you know.

--William Saroyan in Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 8/27/06

07/18/07

I made 5,127 prototypes of my vacuum before I got it right. There were 5,126 failures. But I learned from each one. That's how I came up with a solution. So I don't mind failure. I've always thought that schoolchildren should be marked by the number of failures they've had. The child who tries strange things and experiences lots of failures to get there is probably more creative.

--Sir James Dyson, "Failure Doesn't Suck" Fast Company

07/17/07

You need the willingness to fail all the time. You have to generate many ideas and then you have to work very hard only to discover that they don’t work. And you keep doing that over and over until you find one that does work.

--John Backus, inventor of FORTRAN, quoted in “John W. Backus, 82, Fortran Developer, Dies” New York Times

07/16/07

Success teaches us nothing; only failure teaches.

--Hyman G. Rickover in Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 1/21/07

Failure is the route to success. Hmm, that would make a good theme for Carl’s Quote of the Day this week.

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07/13/07

Most of us spend half our time wishing for things we could have if we didn't spend half our time wishing.

--Alexander Woollcott in Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 1/21/07

07/12/07

Slow down and remember this: Most things make no difference. Being busy is a form of laziness - lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.

--Tim Ferris

07/11/07

The Master does nothing, yet he leaves nothing undone. The ordinary man is always doing things, yet many more are left to be done.

--Tao Te Ching

07/10/07

In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it.

--Robert A. Heinlein in Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 5/6/07

07/09/07

Focus on being productive rather than being busy - your life depends on it.

--Tim Ferris

Busy or productive? One of these, both of these, or the tension between them is our theme this week at Carl’s Quote of the Day.

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07/06/07

The other morning my son announced, "Mom, I really think I'm going to be just like Dad when I grow up."

"Why is that?" I asked.

"Well, because I think my eyebrows will grow into one like his. And, whenever somebody speaks to me, I never hear them."

--Ginny Dow, Rumford, Maine. Christian Reader, "Kids of the Kingdom." ChristianityToday.com

07/05/07

After the christening of his baby brother in church, Jason sobbed all the way home in the back seat of the car. His father asked him three times what was wrong. Finally, the boy replied, "That preacher said he wanted us brought up in a Christian home, and I wanted to stay with you guys."

--Unknown

07/04/07

Our children's church program recently finished a series on Jesus' miracles. The teacher asked if the children had a favorite. My five-year-old son Brendan shot up his hand. "I liked it when Jesus healed the ten leprechauns!"

--Ginny Sullivan, Fairfax, Virginia Christian Reader, "Lite Fare." ChristianityToday.com

07/03/07

One Sunday morning, my 6-year-old son, Joshua, was busy getting dressed for Sunday school. When it was time for us to leave, he came out of his room carrying his entire stock of neckties. When I asked him why he was doing this, he eagerly replied, "'Cause, Mom, Reverend Wyser told us to put our ties in the offering!"

--Debbie Goff, Elmhurst, IL. Today's Christian Woman, "Heart to Heart."

07/02/07

Results Get Rewarded

A minister dies and is waiting in line at the Pearly Gates.

Ahead of him is a guy dressed in sunglasses, a loud shirt, leather jacket, and jeans.

Saint Peter says to this guy, "Who are you, so that I may know whether to admit you to the Kingdom of Heaven?"

The guy replies, "I'm Joe Cohen, taxi driver, of Noo Yawk City."

Saint Peter consults his list. He smiles and says to the taxi driver, "Take this silken robe and golden staff and enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

The taxi driver goes into Heaven with his robe and staff, and it's the minister's turn.

He stands erect and booms out, "I am Joseph Snow, pastor of Saint Mary's for the last 43 years."

Saint Peter consults his list. He says to the minister, "Take this cotton robe and wooden staff and enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

"Just a minute!" says the minister. "That man was a taxi driver, and he gets a silken robe and golden staff. How can this be?"

"Up here, we work by results," says Saint Peter. "While you preached, people slept. While he drove, people prayed."

--Ed Rowell, Franklin, Tennessee; heard from a friend. [ChristianityToday.com]

Carl’s Quote of the Day needs some humor this week.

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06/29/07

A little boy was overheard praying: "Lord, if you can't make me a better boy, don't worry about it.

I'm having a real good time like I am."

--Unknown

06/28/07

And forgive us our trash baskets as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets.

--a four year-old

06/27/07

Our Father, Who does art in heaven, Harold is His name. Amen.

--Reese, 3 years old

06/26/07

Our Father, who art in heaven, how'd you know my name.

--a child quoted by C.L. Null, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Christian Reader, "Kids of the Kingdom."

06/25/07

Pray like this:

Our Father in heaven,

may your name be kept holy.

May your Kingdom come soon.

May your will be done on earth,

as it is in heaven.

Give us today the food we need,

and forgive us our sins,

as we have forgiven those who sin against us.

And don’t let us yield to temptation,

but rescue us from the evil one.

For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

--Jesus, Matthew 6:9-13 (New Living Translation)

This week, at Carl’s Quote of the Day, a look at the Lord’s Prayer from a kid’s point of view.

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06/22/07

Shrek: Ogres are like onions.

Donkey: They stink?

Shrek: Yes. No.

Donkey: Oh, they make you cry.

Shrek: No.

Donkey: Oh, you leave em out in the sun, they get all brown, start sproutin' little white hairs.

Shrek: NO. Layers. Onions have layers. Ogres have layers. Onions have layers. You get it? We both have layers.

[sighs]

Donkey: Oh, you both have layers. Oh. You know, not everybody like onions.

--Shrek

06/21/07

Captain Teague: It's not about living forever, Jackie. It's about living with yourself forever.

--Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

06/20/07

Uncle Ben: Remember, with great power comes great responsibility.

--Spider-Man

06/19/07

Will Turner: No course is lost if but one fool is left to fight.

--Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

06/18/07

Barbossa: The world used to be a bigger place.

Jack Sparrow: The world's still the same - there's just less in it.

--Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Monday morning at the movies… and Tuesday… and Wedn… ok, all week at the movies. The second sequels (third movies) are out for Pirates, Spiderman, and Shrek. So we’ll tap these series for this week’s Carl’s Quote of the Day.

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06/15/07

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.

--Ray Bradbury

06/14/07

The things you read will fashion you by slowly conditioning your mind.

--A.W. Tozer

06/13/07

Books are the shoes with which we tread the footsteps of great minds.

--Unknown

06/12/07

All that mankind has done, thought or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books.

--Thomas Carlyle

06/11/07

You will be the same person in five years that you are today except for two things: the people you meet and the books you read.

--Charles “Tremendous” Jones

Books – our theme this week at Carl’s Quote of the Day.

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06/08/07

Human reason is the work of God, and He gave it to us so that we can recognize Him.

--John Roebling

06/07/07

If one plan won't do, then another must.

--John Roebling

06/06/07

One of his strongest moral traits was his power of will, not a will that was stubborn, but a certain spirit, tenacity of purpose, and confident reliance upon self . . . an instinctive faith in the resources of his art that no force of circumstance could divert him from carrying into effect a project once matured in his mind. . . ."

--Charles B. Stuart, on John Roebling

06/05/07

History teaches us that no man can be great unless a certain amount of vanity enters into his composition . . . For a man to be important it is also necessary to have a good opinion of one's self, even if for no other purpose than to impress others.

--Washington Roebling

06/04/07

No man was ever great by imitation.

--Samuel Johnson

The tenuous theme of this week’s quotes: they are all from The Great Bridge by David McCullough. From Amazon.com: “In the 19th century, the Brooklyn Bridge was viewed as the greatest engineering feat of mankind. The Roeblings--father [John] and son [Washington]--toiled for decades, fighting competitors, corrupt politicians, and the laws of nature to fabricate a bridge which, after 100 years, still provides one of the major avenues of access to one of the world's busiest cities--as compared to many bridges built at the same time which collapsed within decades or even years.”

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06/01/07

Children are a great comfort in your old age--and they help you reach it faster, too.

--Lionel Kauffman

05/31/07

At 60, life begins to resemble a roll of toilet paper—the closer you get to the end, the faster it goes.

--John Maxwell in Leadership Wired v9i22

05/30/07

If you remember the Sixties, you weren't there.

--Grace Slick

I always remembered this quote as “If you remember the Sixties, you didn’t experience the Sixties.” Yes, I remember the Sixties. <sigh>

05/29/07

Middle age is when the narrow waist and the broad mind begin to change places.

--Joey Adams Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 11/26/06

05/28/07

True heroes have become so elusive in our time that, if we seem not to have any, it might be because we aren't able to recognize them and perhaps we don't deserve them. In these times of "kiss and tell" journalism where today's heroes are tomorrow's trivia questions, few can withstand the barrages of intense public scrutiny. Today's heroes are as dispensable as baby diapers and some aren't treated much better. Today, we live in a troubled land of thought-deadening disco bars and cookie-cutter shopping malls. The embodiment of today's hero-types range from sports stars to rock idols. We live under a deluge of continuous blasts of human potential, self-improvement and sensuality which this society has been touting of late. In a society which accepts the tarnished coin of celebrity in place of heroic virtue, our interests seem as broad as they are shallow.

In times like these, we need to look back to the past. As Will Rogers used to say, "The Indians never got lost because they were always looking back to see where they'd been." There are too few statues around these days to honor those hallowed heroes of yesteryear and that is unfortunate, for these shrines provide the necessary inspiration to make us pause for a moment to reflect upon our past.

--Marshall Trimble on Buckey O’Neill in Arizona Adventure, 1982

Today is Memorial Day in the US. We look to our past and to our soldiers. There are true heroes today; they’re just not covered by the “news” media.

I have a birthday ending in zero this week – that will be our theme the rest of this week at Carl’s Quote of the Day.

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05/25/07

We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.

--George Bernard Shaw

05/24/07

You can learn much about life from a checker game: surrender one to take two; don't make two moves at one time; move up, not down; and when you reach the top, you may move as you like.

--Leo Calvin Rosten

05/23/07

Life is like a board game. Most people just throw the dice and move their pieces around the board, but the lawyers are the only ones who have read the inside of the top of the box.

--Jerry Seinfeld

05/22/07

Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you is determinism; the way you play it is free will.

--Jawaharlal Nehru

05/21/07

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.

--Plato

This week Carl’s Quote of the Day brings you “Spawn of Carl’s Quote of the Day” in which Carl’s eldest is the guest quotemaster:

So last weekend my dad [Carl] and mom were in town, but four of my five kids were sick. So we played board games: Scrabble, Boggle, Mix Up, Balloon Lagoon and more. It was probably one of the most enjoyable visits we've had. So this week's quotes are about life and games.

By the way, the last time I was the guest poster to a mailing list was to A Word A Day in May of 1997.

- Jeffrey

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05/18/07

My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.

--Mark Twain

05/17/07

Some are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same, and most mothers kiss and scold together.

--Pearl S. Buck

05/16/07

The future destiny of the child is always the work of mothers.

--Napoleon Bonaparte

05/15/07

I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education which I received from my mother.

--George Washington

05/14/07

All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.

--Abraham Lincoln

Mothers’ Day was celebrated yesterday and I subtly quoted up to it last Friday. Leadership is one of my pet themes, but we’ll morph that into leaders’ quotes about mother this week.

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05/11/07

If evolution were true mothers would have 3 arms.

--Church Sign

05/10/07

Steven Weinberg, a Nobel laureate in physics, warned that “the world needs to wake up from its long nightmare of religious belief,” …

“Anything that we scientists can do to weaken the hold of religion should be done and may in the end be our greatest contribution to civilization.”

“The Earth isn’t 6,000 years old,” he said. “The Kennewick man was not a Umatilla Indian.” But whether there really is some kind of supernatural being — Dr. Krauss said he was a nonbeliever — is a question unanswerable by theology, philosophy or even science. “Science does not make it impossible to believe in God,” Dr. Krauss insisted. “We should recognize that fact and live with it and stop being so pompous about it.”

-- George Johnson, “A Free-for-All on Science and Religion” New York Times

05/09/07

In 1916, researchers asked biologists, physicists, and mathematicians whether they believed in a God who actively communicates with humankind and to whom one may pray in expectation of receiving an answer. About 40 percent answered in the affirmative. In 1997, the same survey was repeated verbatim—and to the surprise of the researchers, the percentage remained very nearly the same.

--Francis Collins in The Language of God

05/08/07

How long will Darwin continue to repose on his high but perilous pedestal? I am beginning to wonder. Few people doubt the principle of evolution. The question at issue is: are all evolutionary advances achieved exclusively by the process of natural selection? That is the position of the Darwinian fundamentalists, and they cling to their absolutist position with all the unyielding certitude with which Southern Baptists assert the literal truth of the Book of Genesis, or Wahabi Muslims proclaim the need for a universal jihad against ‘the Great Satan’.

--Paul Johnston in The Spectator (UK)

05/07/07

"I am not convinced by Intelligent Design but they have brought a lot of difficult questions to the fore," Sternberg told the Post. "Science only moves forward on controversy. … I loathe careerism and the herd mentality. I really think that objective truth can be discovered and that popular opinion and consensus thinking does more to obscure than to reveal."

The "man against the masses" meme could have Sternberg painted as a mere eccentric, a Don Quixote. Instead, he comes off looking very good. And the Darwinists come off looking like fearful fundamentalists. Frankly, that's less a function of the reporting than it is the facts.

--http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/133/51.0.html

Intelligent Darwin Design (or something like that) is our theme this week at Carl’s Quote of the Day.

What is Intelligent Design, anyway?

Intelligent design means that various forms of life began abruptly through an intelligent agency, with their distinctive features already intact - fish with fins and scales, birds with feathers, beaks and wings, etc. Some scientists have arrived at this view since fossil forms first appear in the rock record with their distinctive features intact, rather than gradually developing.

--"The Evolution Wars" Time Magazine Aug 15, 2005

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05/04/07

You've been living in doubt and visiting your faith; it's time to live in your faith and visit your doubts.

--Carmen Renee Berry in “In Search of Spiritual Community”

05/03/07

I respect faith, but doubt is what gives you an education.

--Wilson Mizner

05/02/07

Frantic orthodoxy is never rooted in faith but in doubt. It is when we're not sure that we're most sure.

--Reinhold Niebuhr in Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 6/19/05

05/01/07

There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds.

--Alfred, Lord Tennyson

04/30/07

Doubt isn't the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith.

--Paul Tillich quoted by Francis Collins in The Language of God

Doubt as an element of faith. That should make a good theme this week at Carl’s Quote of the Day.

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04/27/07

When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?

--Eleanor Roosevelt

04/26/07

"Let your conscience be your guide" is valid only if God's Word is guiding your conscience.

--Dennis De Haan in Our Daily Bread 10/21/06

04/25/07

Conscience is like a sundial: when the truth of God shines on it, it points in the right direction.

--Our Daily Bread 10/21/06

04/24/07

There is a treasure you can own

That's greater than a crown or throne:

A conscience good with which to live,

That only God Himself can give.

--Isenhour in Our Daily Bread 10/21/06

04/23/07

Before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.

--the character Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee quoted in Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 4/23/06

Our theme at Carl’s Quote of the Day this week is conscience… by Jiminy (Cricket).

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04/20/07

God grants us an uncommon life to the degree we surrender our common one.

--Max Lucado

04/19/07

The trouble with life isn't that there is no answer; it's that there are so many answers.

--Ruth Benedict

04/18/07

Your life is what your thoughts make it.

--Marcus Aurelius quoted in Our Daily Bread 09/07/06

04/17/07

Life must always be more than just the inventory of the things we own.

--Bill Crowder in Our Daily Bread 02/23/07

04/16/07

Life is a grindstone, and whether it grinds a man down or polishes him up depends on what he is made of.

--Josh Billings in Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 4/16/06

“Life” is a board game and our theme this week at Carl’s Quote of the Day.

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04/13/07

We worry about things we want to do - but can't - instead of doing the things we can do - but don't.

--Denis Waitley in his Weekly Ezine i4

04/12/07

We've all got to worry some. Just don't let it conquer you. Instead, let it alarm you.

--Jim Rohn in his weekly E-zine 6/1/04

04/11/07

Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but doesn't get you anywhere.

--Anonymous

04/10/07

Worry is interest paid on trouble before it falls due.

--W. R. Inge in Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 6/5/06

04/09/07

Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.

--Swedish proverb

I was worried about what the theme this week should be at Carl’s Quote of the Day. Eureka! The theme is worry!

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04/06/07

I don't want to play golf. When I hit a ball, I want someone else to go chase it.

--Rogers Hornsby

04/05/07

Baseball is the only game left for people. To play basketball, you have to be 7 feet 6 inches. To play football, you have to be the same width.

--Bill Veeck

04/04/07

With those who don't give a damn about baseball, I can only sympathize. I do not resent them. I am even willing to concede that many of them are physically clean, good to their mothers and in favor of world peace. But while the game is on, I can't think of anything to say to them.

--Art Hill

04/03/07

Baseball is an allegorical play about America, a poetic, complex, and subtle play of courage, fear, good luck, mistakes, patience about fate, and sober self-esteem.

--Saul Steinberg

That's the true harbinger of spring, not crocuses or swallows returning to Capistrano, but the sound of a bat on a ball.

--Bill Veeck

We have a familiar theme for this time of year here at Carl’s Quote of the Day: baseball. The regular season is now underway.