First Family

I believe it is better to tell the truth than a lie.
I believe it is better to be free than a slave.
And I believe it is better to know than to be ignorant.

- H.L. Mencken

The Family

The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together.

~Erma Bombeck

Gratitude

In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal
more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude
that life becomes rich.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Attitude of Hope

The road that is built in hope is more pleasant to the traveler
than the road built in despair,
even though they both lead to the same destination.

~Marian Zimmer Bradley

Family Ties

Other things may change us,
but we start and end with family.

- Anthony Brandt

Serenity in the Storm

Serenity is not freedom from the storm, but peace amid the storm.

- Author Unknown

Sharing at Christmas

The feelings shared during Christmas will last much longer
than the gifts we receive.

- John A. Jenson

Compassion

How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and the strong.
Because someday in life, you will have been all of these.

- George Washington Carver

Charity

Charity should begin at home,
but should not stay there.

- Phillips Brooks

Forgiveness

To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love.
In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness.

- Robert Muller

Notion of Peace

Peace, in the sense of the absence of war, is of little value to someone who is dying of hunger or cold. It will not remove the pain of torture inflicted on a prisoner of conscience. It does not comfort those who have lost their loved ones in floods caused by senseless deforestation in a neighboring country.

Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free.

- The XIVth Dalai Lama

For the Rest of My Life

For the rest of my life, on this day of days, please help me ...

to do unto others as I would have them do unto me,

to give more of myself, every hour, than is expected,

to set goals and hold fast to my dreams,

to search for the good in every adversity that befalls me,

to perform all my duties with enthusiasm and love,

and above all, to be myself.

- Og Mandino, The Return of the Ragpicker

Sharing to a Friend

This communicating of a man's self to his friend works two contrary effects;
for it redoubleth joys, and cutteth griefs in half.

- Francis Bacon

Reaching out in love

There is a terrible hunger for love.
We all experience that in our lives - the pain, the loneliness.
We must have the courage to recognize it.
The poor you may have right in your own family.
Find them.
Love them.

- Mother Teresa

Kindness of Others

Sometimes our light goes out
but is blown into a flame by another human being.
Each of us owes deepest thanks to those
who have rekindled this light.

- Albert Schweitzer

Perceiving Christmas

To perceive Christmas through its wrappings becomes more difficult with every year.

- E. B. White

Surviving Prosperity

The human race has had long experience and a fine tradition in surviving adversity.

But we now face a task for which we have little experience,

the task of surviving prosperity.

~ Alan Gregg

Materialism

It is preoccupation with possessions,
more than anything else,
that prevents men from living freely and nobly.

- Bertrand Russell

Friendship

A friend is the one who comes in when the whole world has gone out.

- Grace Pulpit