DESIRES
Ralph Waldo Emerson addressed a graduating class at Harvard University: “Young men, be careful what you want, for you will surely get it.”
DESPAIR
In the world it is called Tolerance, but in hell it is called Despair … the sin that believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and remains alive because there is nothing for which it will die.
—Dorothy Sayers
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
—Henry Thoreau
DETAILS
Until you do little details carefully, you will never do the big things correctly.
DETERMINATION
Three businessmen had adjacent businesses in a rectangular building. One man put up a sign, “Clearance Sale.” Another, on the other end of the building, displayed a sign, “Year-end Sale.” The man in the middle knew his business was in trouble so he put up a sign, “Main Entrance.”
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.
—Abraham Lincoln
The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.
—Tommy Lasorda
Whatever you can do, or think you can do, begin it. For boldness has power and courage and genius in it.
—Johann von Goethe
A small boy was learning to skate. His frequent mishaps awakened the pity of a bystander. “Sonny, you’re getting all banged up,” he said. “Why don’t you stop for a while and just watch the others?” With tears rolling down his cheeks the boy looked at the man and then at his skates and answered, “Mister, I didn’t get these skates to give up on; I got them to learn how on.”
He who really wants to do something finds a way; he who doesn’t finds an excuse.
Our greatest joy is not in never falling, but rising every time we fall.
—Confucius
Of all the sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest of all are these: “it could have been.”
—John Greenleaf Whittier
Henry Comstock laid claim to a silver deposit in Virginia City, Nevada in 1859. Before long he was offered $11,000 for his claim and sold it. But he sold out too soon.
The Comstock lode proved to be the greatest silver deposit in history. It brought its later owner some $340,000 during the following thirty years.
The famous football coach “Hurry-Up” Yost of the University of Michigan once rebuked an overconfident player who said that their team would come out on top because it had the “will to win.” “Don’t fool yourself,” he declared, “that attitude is not worth a nickel unless you also have the will to prepare!”
DEVOTION
No vital Christianity is possible unless at least three aspects of it are developed. These three are the inner life of devotion, the outer life of service, and the intellectual life of rationality.
—Elton Trueblood
DIETING
Her idea of a balanced diet is a pizza in each hand.
—Hal Roach
She swears she diets religiously. She doesn’t eat while she’s in church.
—Hal Roach
Dieters are people who get up in the morning and the first things they say is, “Mirror, mirror, on the dresser—do I look a little lesser.”
—Robert Orben
A dieting colleen named Flynn
Reduced until she was thin.
She’s no more, I’m afraid
For she sipped lemonade
and slipped through the straw and fell in.
A Dieting Psalm
Strict is my diet, I must not want.
It maketh me lie down at night hungry;
It leadeth me past the Baskin Robbins;
It trieth my will power;
It leadeth me in the paths of starvation for my figure’s sake.
Yea, tho I walk thru the aisles of the pastry department,
I will buy no sweet rolls for they are fattening.
The cakes and the pies, they tempt me.
Before me is a table of celery and lettuce,
My day’s quota runneth over.
Surely calories and weight charts shall follow me all the days of my life,
And I will dwell in the fear of scales forever.
Minister to small daughter in home where he was calling: “What will you do when you are as big as your mother?”
Little one: “Boy, I’ll diet!”
On a dinner flight a woman from Switzerland heavily salted and peppered her dessert, a luscious-looking piece of chocolate cake. The flight attendant, somewhat taken back, explained that it wasn’t necessary to do this. “Oh, but it is,” the woman replied, smiling. “It keeps me from eating it.”
“Are you on a garlic diet?”
“No. Should I be?”
“Its a great diet. It keeps people away from you so that you look farther away and thus smaller.”
Lord, we thank you for these luscious vittles. May they add to your glory and not to our middles.
DIFFERENCES
No two people are alike and both of them are glad of it.
—Farmer’s Almanac
DIFFICULTIES – TROUBLES
All you need to grow fine, vigorous grass is a crack in your sidewalk.
—Will Rogers
A twelve-year-old boy had a puppy which he took for a walk around the block twice a day. A visitor asked him, “How do you do that twice daily with such a large puppy?” He answered simply, “With great difficulty.”
Hard things to do: to forget, to forgive, to apologize, to take advice, to admit error, to be unselfish, to save money, to be charitable, to be considerate, to keep out of a rut, to keep moving on. But they pay!
See the invisible; believe the incredible; do the impossible.
—Vernon Grounds
When the Lord wants to do something great, He begins with the difficult; when He wants to do something even greater, He begins with the impossible.
DILIGENCE
Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle: When the sun comes up, you had better be running!
There is no poverty that can overtake diligence.
—Japanese proverb
A missionary from India told about an army officer who stopped to have his shoes shined by a poor Indian boy on the street. The lad launched into his task with such enthusiasm and vigor that the man was utterly amazed. Instead of an ordinary, slipshod performance with all-too-eagerly outstretched hand for a tip, the boy worked diligently until the leather sparkled with a brilliant luster. The officer asked, “Why are you taking so much time to polish my boots?” “Well, sir,” was the reply, “last week Jesus came into my heart and now I belong to Him. Since then, every time I shine someone’s shoes, I keep thinking they’re His, so I do the very best I can. I want Him to be pleased!”
The young army doctor was stationed at a remote dispensary in the South Pacific. One day he was puzzled about treatment for one of his patients. He radioed a base hospital: “Have case of beriberi. What shall I do?”
A prankster got hold of the message. This was the reply: “Give it to Marines. They’ll drink anything.”
DIPLOMACY
Diplomacy is the same as saying “nice doggie” until you have a chance to pick up a rock.
—Frances Rodman
A politician said, “Some of my friends are for this new bill, and some are against it, and I’m for my friends.”
Diplomacy is thinking twice before saying nothing.
DISCIPLINE
A woman visiting in Switzerland came to a sheepfold on one of her daily walks. Venturing in, she saw the shepherd seated on the ground with his flock around him. Nearby, on a pile of straw lay a single sheep which seemed to be suffering. Looking closely, the woman saw that its leg was broken. Her sympathy went out to the suffering sheep and she asked the shepherd how it happened.
“I broke it myself,” said the shepherd sadly and then explained. “Of all the sheep in my flock this was the most wayward. It would not obey my voice and would not follow when I was leading the flock. On more than one occasion it wandered to the edge of a perilous cliff. And not only was it disobedient itself, but it was leading the other sheep astray. Based on my experience with this kind of sheep, I knew I had no choice, so I broke its leg. The next day I took food and it tried to bite me. After letting it lie alone for a couple of days, I went back to it and it not only eagerly took the food but licked my hand and showed every sign of submission and affection.
“When the sheep is well, it will be the model sheep of my entire flock. No sheep will hear my voice so quickly nor follow so closely. Instead of leading the others away, it will be an example of devotion and obedience. In short, a complete change will come into the life of this wayward sheep. It will have learned obedience through its sufferings.”
Several years ago while I was waiting for a train at the railroad station in Jhansi, India, I photographed a notice that was pasted on one of the posts on the platform. It was a quote from Jawaharlal Nehru. It read as follows: “None can say that excessive rest is harmful.” I’m still trying to figure out what Pundit Nehru meant by this. Let us assume he was quoted out of context. It seems he must have been, for surely excessive rest can be harmful. Anything can be done to excess, even rest! There can be times when we cater to our personal or body desires more than we should and discipline needs to be exercised to do what we ought.
—Richard Winchell
DISCOURAGEMENT
There is a legend of a man who found the barn where Satan kept his seeds ready to be sown in the human heart, and on finding the seeds of discouragement more numerous than others, learned that those seeds could be made to grow almost anywhere. When Satan was questioned he reluctantly admitted that there was one place in which he could never get them to thrive. “And where is that?” asked the man. Satan replied sadly, “In the heart of a grateful man.”
Although you may have occasional spells of despondency, don’t despair. The sun has a sinking spell every night.
The Christian’s chief occupational hazards are depression and discouragement.
—John R. Stott
It is said the Devil once decided to go out of business and he offered his tools for sale. They were attractively displayed: Trickery, Hatred, Jealousy, Malice, Deceit, Sensuality, and many other evil tools, each marked with a price. But in the center was a wedge-shaped, much worn tool priced higher than all the others. “What is that?” Satan was asked. “That is Discouragement,” he replied. “But why so costly?” “Because it can do my evil work better than all other tools. With it I can make the lives of many folks of no value. I can make them just lie down and ‘give up’ and become useless and they don’t even know I am the one who uses it.”
If Satan’s arsenal of weapons were restricted to a single one, it would be discouragement.
—C. S. Lewis
You can tell how big a worker is by observing how much it takes to discourage him.
If this is the first day of the rest of my life, I’m in for a dismal future.
—Twiggy
When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.
—Anonymous
The radiant sky behind us will illuminate the path before us.
—Alexander Maclaren
Success is often closest when discouragement is greatest.
DISCRETION
When a top executive is selecting his key associates, there are only two qualities for which he should be willing to pay almost any price: taste and judgment. Almost everything else can be bought by the yard.
—John W. Gardner
The essence of wisdom is to withhold judgment until all the facts are in.