INDECISION
A man’s home was on the border that separated the North and the South during the Civil War. He didn’t want to take sides so he wore a Confederate Army jacket and Union Army pants. But he ran into trouble. The Union soldiers shot at his jacket and the Confederates shot him in the pants.
Indecision is fatal. It is better to make a wrong decision than build up a habit of indecision. If you’re wallowing in indecision, you certainly can’t act—and action is the basis of success.
—Marie Beynon Ray
I used to be indecisive, but now I’m not so sure.
INDIFFERENCE
The opposite of love is not hate—it’s indifference.
—Ellie Wiesel
A pastor announced his topic for his sermon as “Ignorance and Indifference.” A person in the congregation saw that in the bulletin and leaned to his neighbor and said, “What does that mean?”
He answered, “I don’t know and I don’t care.”
INFLATION
“Inflation is creeping up,” a young man said to his friend. “Yesterday I ordered a twenty-five dollar steak in a restaurant and told them to put it on my American Express card … and it fit.”
—Reader’s Digest
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,
Who said, “With inflation, what’s a body to do?
But I’m not so bad off,
for just down the block,
Is a little old woman
Who lives in a sock.”
People used to wait until the price came down before buying something. Now they buy before the price goes up.
By the time a person acquires a nest egg these days, inflation turns it into chicken feed.
INFLUENCE
In the spring of 1894, the Baltimore Orioles came to Boston to play a routine baseball game. But what happened that day was anything but routine.
The Orioles’ John McGraw got into a fight with the Boston third baseman. Within minutes all the players from both teams had joined in the brawl. The warfare quickly spread to the grandstands. Among the fans the conflict went from bad to worse. Someone set fire to the stands and the entire ballpark burned to the ground. Not only that, but the fire spread to 107 other Boston buildings as well.
A demonstration was once performed to show that a tiny cork could eventually move a heavy piece of steel. An eight-foot bar was suspended by a very strong wire. Nearby, a small cork hanging by a fine silk thread was swung gently and rhythmically against the metal. At first the large object remained apparently motionless, but after being struck repeatedly for ten minutes, a slight variation could be observed. At the end of half an hour the impact of the cork had transferred enough momentum to the bar to make it swing like a mighty pendulum.
My life shall touch a dozen lives
before this day is done,
Leave countless marks for good or
ill ere sets the evening sun.
This is the wish I always wish, the
prayer I always pray:
Lord, may my life help other lives
it touches by the way.
If you live with a lame man, you learn to limp.
—Plutarch
He who lives with wolves will learn to howl.
—Italian proverb
Jonathan Edwards, known as a religious and moral man, had at the time of this study, 1,394 descendants from his union with a Christian wife, Sarah. Of them, there were 100 preachers and missionaries, 100 lawyers, 80 public officials, 75 army and navy officers, 65 college professionals, 60 authors of prominence, 60 physicians, 30 judges, 13 college presidents, 3 United States senators, 1 vice-president of the United States, and 295 college graduates, among whom were governors of states and ministers to foreign countries.
But the power of the nuclear family works both ways. Max Jukes was an atheist and an example of ungodly living. From his union sprang 540 known descendants whose record is less impressive—310 died as paupers; 150 were criminals; 100 drunkards; 7 murderers; and more than half of the women were prostitutes. The offspring of Jukes and his wife are a vivid reminder that what can work for good can also produce evil.
—Leonard Ravenhill
Our lives are either sand dunes or sculptures. Our lives are shaped either by influences or by purposes.
—John Gardner
You will be the same person five years from now that you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.
—Charlie “Tremendous” Jones
INGRATITUDE
A. J. Cronin had an unusual experience in New York City. He took a taxi and once inside he could tell from the driver’s expression and the way he slammed the gears that something was wrong. He asked the driver what the trouble was.
“I’ve got good reason to be sore,” he growled. “One of my fares left a wallet in my cab this morning. Nearly three hundred bucks in it! I spent more than an hour trying to trace the guy. Finally I found him at his hotel. He took the wallet without a word and glared at me as though I meant to snitch it.”
“He didn’t reward you?” Cronin asked.
“Not a cent, and me on my time and gas. But it wasn’t the dough I wanted …” He fumbled for words, then exploded, “If the guy had only said something.”
During World War II, a young army captain was hit by enemy fire while dragging a seriously wounded sergeant to safety. Both were taken to an army hospital. The officer died, but the rescued soldier recovered. The captain’s parents, having been informed about the heroism of their son, invited the sergeant to their home for dinner. He accepted the invitation, but when he arrived he was not only late but in a half-intoxicated condition. All the while he was there he acted boorishly, said nothing about the one who had saved his life, wolfed down his food, and left without even saying thanks for their gracious hospitality. As soon as he was gone, the mother burst into tears, exclaiming, “To think that our son had to die for an ungrateful person like that!”
INHERITANCE
Some few years ago a poverty-stricken man in New Jersey opened an old family Bible and found, scattered throughout its pages, five thousand dollars in United States currency. This book had been in his possession for about thirty-five years, for while he was still a young man it was left to him by his aunt, a portion of whose will read: “To my beloved nephew … I will and bequeath my family Bible and all it contains, with the residue of my estate after my funeral expenses and just and lawful debts are paid.”
INJUSTICE
To do injustice is more disgraceful than to suffer it.
—Plato
During the Great Depression, my father moved to a farm as a tenant. He signed a contract stating that he and the owner would share equally in the proceeds from milk and crops. In the fall, however, the landlord wouldn’t give us our share of the money from the wheat crop. Dad’s appeals to him accomplished nothing, so he consulted a Christian lawyer.
Reading the fine print in the contract, the lawyer advised my father that he could take no legal action. The landowner was unethical, but he had been clever enough to keep out of trouble. Rather humorously, the lawyer said, “Mr. Vander Lught, you have three choices. You can kill the crook and get yourself in deep trouble. You can cheat him and become like him. Or you can take the wrong and let God take care of you and him.”
—Herbert Vander Lught
“Sometimes I would like to ask God why He allows poverty, famine, and injustice when He could do something about it.”
“Well—why don’t you ask Him?”
“Because I’m afraid God might ask me the same question.”
INSTRUCTIONS
I’ve learned the same thing about my garden that Adam and Eve learned about theirs. It’s best to follow the instructions.
—Bob Orben
INSULTS
Never insult an alligator until after you have crossed the river.
—Cordell Hull
The wound of words is worse than the wound of swords.
—Arabic proverb
INSURANCE
An old farmer at an insurance company reported that his barn burned down. He wanted to collect cash totaling two thousand dollars. But the insurance agents said they don’t give cash but they would replace the old building with a new one built in the same size and shape. The farmer then said, “If that’s your policy, I want to cancel my insurance on my wife.”
INTEGRITY – HONESTY
The supreme quality for a leader is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, on a football field, in an army, or in an office. If a man’s associates find him guilty of phoniness, if they find that he lacks forthright integrity, he will fail. His teachings and actions must agree with each other.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Integrity is the integration of one’s life around his core values.
—William D. Lawrence
“My boy,” said the store owner to his new employee, “wisdom and integrity are essential to the retail business. By ‘integrity’ I mean if you promise a customer something, you have to keep that promise—even if it means we lose money.”
“And what,” asked the teenager, “is wisdom.”
“That,” answered the boss, “is not making any stupid promises.”
—Handley Herold
Vision without integrity is not mission—it’s manipulation.
—Howard G. Hendricks
INTELLIGENCE
Being intelligent involves being ignorant about those things that are not worth knowing.
Smart is when you believe one half of what you hear. Brilliant is when you know which half to believe.
—Presbyterian Journal
INTENTIONS
Mr. Meant To has a comrade,
And his name is Didn’t Do;
Have you ever chanced to meet them?
Did they ever call on you?
These two fellows live together
In the house of Never Win;
And I’m told that it is haunted
By the ghost of Might Have Been.
Good intentions will not help a man on his way if he takes the wrong road.
INTEREST
Interesting people are people who are interested.
—Teen Esteem
INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS
Ten suggestions for getting along better with people:
1. Guard your tongue. Say less than you think.
2. Make promises sparingly. Keep them faithfully.
3. Never let an opportunity pass to say a kind word.
4. Be interested in others, their pursuits, work, families.
5. Be cheerful. Don’t dwell on minor aches and disappointments.
6. Keep an open mind. Discuss but don’t argue. Disagree without being disagreeable.
7. Discourage gossip. It’s destructive.
8. Be careful of others’ feelings.
9. Pay no attention to ill-natured remarks about you. Live so that nobody will believe them.
10. Don’t be anxious about getting credit. Just do your best and be patient.
—Bits & Pieces
You can handle people more successfully by enlisting their feelings than by convincing their reason.
—Paul P. Parker
If you treat a person as he is, he will stay as he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be, he will become that bigger and better person.
—Johann von Goethe
INTERPRETATION
Once a country doctor was called in to see a sick girl. Only the girl’s sister was with her so the doctor told the sister to give her some quinine. He said, “Give her just a little bit every morning, just about as much as you could put on a dime.”
So one day later he got a call from the girl’s sister. She said, “Come right away, Doctor. She’s about to die.”
The doctor hurried out, and when he saw her he said, “It looks like your only trouble is that you have had too much quinine.”
Her sister then spoke up and said, “Well, I couldn’t find a dime, so I gave her some quinine on two nickels.”