EDITING
Editor Graham Green said regarding editing his own manuscript, “You have to kill your darlings.”
EDUCATION – LEARNING
When a subject becomes totally obsolete, we make it a required course.
—Peter Drecker
Harvard University permitted freedom in matters of theology and made no religious requirement of college officers.
Yale drifted partly in concern for academic excellence amidst an environment of agnosticism and Unitarianism.
Dartmouth and Columbia only had a statement in its charter about the great principles of Christianity and morality in which true Christians of each denomination are generally agreed. It had no strong statement of faith.
Princeton yielded because of pressure from alumni. Princeton’s charter insisted on a saved faculty, but it did not require this of its students. As it turned out more and more non-Christian alumni who could give withheld donations. It finally succumbed to their demand for a voice in the management and educational policies.
—Paul Lee Tan
The institution that belittles plumbing while exalting philosophy will neither have good plumbing or philosophy. Neither its pipes or its theories will hold water.
—Clark Kerr
The function of a seminary is to turn the students up (recruiting), sort them out (admissions), shape them up (teaching), shake them up (examinations), and pass them on (graduation and placement).
—James D. Geasse
Education is how kids learn stuff.
—A seven-year-old
A human being is not, in any proper sense, a human being until he is educated.
—Horace Mann
At the desk where I sit, I have learned one great truth. The answer for all our national problems—the answer for all the problems of the world—comes in a single word. That word is education.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
It is on the sound education of the people that the security and destiny of every nation chiefly rest.
—Louis Kossuth
Sixty years ago, I knew everything; now I know nothing; education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.
—Will Durant
Education makes people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave.
—Lord Brougham
When Ralph Waldo Emerson said that Harvard College taught all the branches of learning, Henry Thoreau said, “Yes, all the branches, but none of the roots.”
In a business class at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, the students had to interview a number of local people and write a report. One student thought the assignment was a waste of time until he spoke with a seventy-eight-year-old farmer. He asked the old man, “How much education do you have?” The farmer answered, “Six years of schoolin’ and seventy-two years of learnin’.”
Christianity is the religion of an educated mind.
—Sir William Ramsay
A man was out walking in the desert when a voice said to him, “Pick up some pebbles and put them in your pocket, and tomorrow you will be both sorry and glad.”
The man obeyed. He stooped down and picked up a handful of pebbles and put them in his pocket. The next morning he reached into his pocket and found diamonds and rubies and emeralds. And he was both glad and sorry. Glad that he had taken some—sorry that he hadn’t taken more.
And so it is with education.
—William Cunningham
The person who graduates today and stops learning tomorrow is uneducated the day after.
When is a man educated? When he knows how to live, how to love, how to hope, how to pray, and is not afraid to die.
—Joseph Fort Newton
The educated man is a man with certain spiritual qualities which make him calm in adversity, happy when alone, just in his dealings, rational and sane in the fullest meaning of the word in all the affairs of life.
—Ramsey MacDonald
I am much afraid that the universities will prove to be the great gates to hell, unless they diligently labor to explain the Holy Scriptures and to engrave them on the hearts of youth. I advise no one to place his child where the Scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution where men are not unceasingly occupied with the Word of God must become corrupt.
—Martin Luther
In 1636, John Harvard, whose bequest endowed Harvard University, said, “Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to … lay Christ in the bottom as the only foundation of all knowledge and learning.”
EFFECTIVENESS
“I’m planning a salary increase for you, young man.”
“When does it become effective?”
“Just as soon as you do.”
EFFICIENCY
It is more than probable that the average man could, with no injury to his health, increase his efficiency 50 percent.
—Walter Dill Scott
The individual who increases his efficiency as much as 10 percent often increases his income and his opportunities as much as 100 percent. Sun Beau, the great race horse, was worth ten times as much as other horses but he did not have to run ten times as fast, only a split second faster.
EFFORT
Triumph is umph added to try.
ELECTIONS – POLITICS
Some folks get elected because they are well known; others are defeated for the same reason.
—Farmers’ Almanac
EMBARRASSMENT
A young man was working in the produce department of a grocery store. A woman told him she wanted to buy half a head of lettuce. He said they sell lettuce only by the head. But she insisted. So he said, “Okay, lady, I’ll check with the manager.”
He went across the store to the manager, not realizing she was directly behind him. He said to the manager, “Some idiot wants to buy half a head of lettuce.” Then he noticed the lady standing next to him. So he added, “And this dear lady wants half a head of lettuce too.”
Later the boss said, “Son, that was pretty good. A quick response. By the way, where are you from?”
“I’m from Westchester, Pennsylvania. The city of ugly women and great basketball players.”
The boss said, “My wife is from Westchester, Pennsylvania.”
So the boy responded, “What basketball team did your wife play on?”
A judge in Washington State has been using bumper stickers to encourage better driving. He’s found that people guilty of driving while intoxicated resent having to attach the following message to their bumper: This Car Owned by a Convicted Drunk Driver. Almost all offenders prefer the magistrate’s other option: enrollment in an alcohol treatment program. The majority of people care about what others think of them. They want to maintain a good image.
When a first-year seminary student entered church one Sunday, he noticed the guest speaker was an especially boring professor from the seminary. “Oh, no!” he said, in a voice louder than he intended.
When the woman beside him wondered what was wrong, the student said, “That’s Mr. Drysdale up there. He’s my professor at seminary. I have him three days this week and now this’ll be the fourth time. He’s unbelievably boring.”
A smile came across the woman’s face. “Do you know who I am?” she asked.
“No.”
“I am Mrs. Drysdale, the wife of your professor.”
For a moment the student was silent. Then he asked, “Do you know who I am?”
“No, I don’t,” she replied.
“Good,” he said as he quickly exited.
As a special education major at Illinois State University in Normal, I was the only male student in many of my classes. As a result, my professors and fellow students continually badgered me about my love life. One day, a professor stopped his lecture to point out a girl walking by our classroom window. “Now, there’s the woman for you, Dave,” he said.
“Her?” I responded. “No way!”
“That’s too bad,” he replied. “She’s my daughter.”
—David Curry
EMOTIONS, MIXED
One youngster was explaining to another boy what “mixed emotions” meant. “It’s like watching the school burn down when your new catcher’s mitt is in your desk,” he said.
—Bits & Pieces
EMPATHY
Several years ago a young boy in Dallas was in an accident which necessitated the amputation of one of his arms. He withdrew from his family and friends and refused to talk to anyone. He was literally wasting away in withdrawal from life.
A friend of mine went to the hospital and asked if he might visit with the young fellow. This friend was met with skepticism but was allowed to visit the boy. When he came to the room, he saw the youngster staring out the window. The boy turned to see his visitor, who also lacked an arm. The boy looked at him for a few moments in silence. Then he said angrily, “You don’t know how I feel, you couldn’t.”
“No, friend, you’re wrong,” the man said, “I do know how you feel. I also have lived without an arm.”
The young boy hesitated a moment longer in his anger. Then he broke into tears as he ran toward my friend and put his one good arm around him. It was the beginning of the lad’s recovery, which began when he found someone who really understood him.
—S. Craig Glickman
A sign was placed in a front yard: “Puppies For Sale.” A small boy came to inquire about the puppies, “I’d like to buy a puppy if they don’t cost too much.”
“Well, son, they’re ten dollars.”
The child’s face fell. “I don’t got but $1.63. Could I just look at them anyway?”
“Sure, maybe we can work something out.” Then the little boy said anxiously, “I heard there was one with a bad leg.”
“Yes,” replied the man, “I’m afraid she is hopelessly crippled.”
“That’s the one!” the small boy exclaimed. “Could I pay for her a little at a time?”
“But wouldn’t you rather have one who could play with you? This one will never be able to walk very well.”
Hiking up one trouser leg, the little boy showed a brace. “I don’t walk so good either,” he said matter-of-factly, “and I reckon she’ll need some understanding till she gets used to it. I did.”
EMPLOYEES
Hiring people smarter than you proves you’re smarter than they are.
—Bits & Pieces
Some workers who are not paid what they are worth ought to be glad.
EMPTINESS
At the end of the 1960s, a young graduate of Mills College addressed her graduating class. The title of her speech made national news: “The Future Is a Hoax.” Combine this with the dictum of industrialist Henry Ford, “History is bunk,” and you have a description of an empty life.
—Edward L. Hayes
ENCOURAGEMENT
Queen Victoria said of William Gladstone, “When I am with him, I feel I am with one of the most important leaders in the world.” But of Benjamin Disraeli she said, “He makes me feel as if I am one of the most important leaders of the world.”
I can live for two months on a good compliment.
—Mark Twain
A little boy said to his dad, “Let’s play darts, Dad. I’ll throw and you say, ‘Great shot!’ ”
Praise does wonders for our sense of hearing.
—Arnold Glasgow
There are high spots in all of our lives, and most of them have come about through encouragement from someone else. I don’t care how great, how famous, or successful a man or woman may be, each hungers for applause.
—George Matthew Adams
The five most important words: “I have confidence in you.”
The four most important words: “What is your opinion?”
The three most important words: “If you please.”
The two most important words: “Thank you!”
The most important word: “We.”
The least important word: “I.”
Three billion people go to bed hungry every night, but four billion people go to bed hungry for a simple word of encouragement.
—Cavett Robert
Remember that before the Flood came, Noah was in the minority, but after the Flood, he was in the majority.
We live by encouragement, and we die without it—slowly, sadly, angrily.
—Celeste Holm
Encouragement is oxygen to the soul.
—George Adam
One kind word can warm up three winter months.
—Japanese proverb
These large birds [sandhill cranes], who fly great distances across continents, have three remarkable qualities. First, they rotate leadership. No one bird stays out in front all the time. Second, they choose leaders who can handle turbulence. And then, all during the time one bird is leading, the rest are honking their affirmation.
—Bruce Larson
A Christian worker recently went into a restaurant to buy an inexpensive meal. A waitress approached him and in a rather brusque voice demanded, “Can I help you?” “Yes, ma’am.” “Coffee with your order?” “Yes, ma’am,” he replied absentmindedly, for his thoughts were occupied with some important spiritual matters. Suddenly the uncongenial waitress flared up, exclaiming sarcastically, “Is that all you can say?” Before he could catch himself, he once again replied, “Yes, ma’am!”
With a curse she stamped away in disgust and anger. When the food was ready, she almost threw it on the table and showed contempt with every action. Although he did not have much money, he sacrificially laid a five-dollar bill on the table as he left. As he was paying the cashier, the discourteous waitress called, “Sir, you left this money on the table!” “Isn’t that the usual place to leave a tip?” he replied, smiling at her warmly. The girl blushed and then began to make apologies for her hateful actions.
The missionary said cordially, “I figured you must have some heavy burdens on your heart or you wouldn’t have become so easily upset. I thought a good tip might encourage you.” By this time the girl was brokenhearted, and she told him of the many problems facing her. Before he left the restaurant, he was able to lead that waitress to the Lord!
—Our Daily Bread
Our duty is not to see through one another, but to see one another through.
Correction does much, but encouragement does more.
—Johann von Goethe
People have a way of becoming what you encourage them to be—not what you nag them to be.
—Scudder N. Parker
A word of encouragement during a failure is worth more than a whole book of praise after a success.
—Bits & Pieces
The deepest principle in the human heart is the craving to be appreciated.
—William James
One of the highest of human duties is the duty of encouragement.… It is easy to laugh at men’s ideals; it is easy to pour cold water on their enthusiasm; it is easy to discourage others. The world is full of discouragers. We have a Christian duty to encourage one another. Many a time a word of praise or thanks or appreciation or cheer has kept a man on his feet. Blessed is the man who speaks such a word.
—William Barclay