Curtis Dahlgren
YOU want "change"? Then change your own dumb self!
By Curtis Dahlgren
"The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails." – William Arthur Ward
"What we change inwardly will change outer reality." – Plutarch
"Change your thoughts and you change your world." – Norman Vincent Peale
IF 'POSITIVE THINKER' NORMAN VINCENT PEALE were alive today, he might be on a psychiatrist's couch. So many problems, so little, little, time to fix them. The hour glass is less than half full. The sands of time are draining. And society is circling the drain.
It has been a few thousand years since Solomon put together a bunch of proverbs, so here, in a certain order, is a 21st century collection (partly from the Top 100 via BrainyQuote.com):
"I'M SORRY. IF YOU WERE RIGHT, I'D AGREE WITH YOU." – Robin Williams
"If your enemy is laughing, he can't bludgeon you." – Mel Brooks
"If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door!" – Milton Berle [i.e., get a diploma, not a lottery ticket!]
"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream." – Les Brown
"Nothing is impossible; the word itself says 'I'm possible'!" – Audrey Hepburn
"A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way." – John Maxwell
"A good example is far better than a good precept." – Dwight L. Moody
"Where one man reads the Bible, a hundred read you and me." – Moody
"As with socialism, Christianity's worst recommendation is its adherents." – unknown
"It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man." – H.L. Mencken
"Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools speak because they want to say something." – Plato
"There is no better book with which to defend the Bible than the Bible itself." – Moody
"God never made a promise that was too good to be true." – Moody
"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without a fight." – Sun Tzu
"I will fight your battles for you." – God
"If your enemy is laughing . . . "
P.S. Feeling "oppressed?" Picked on by the police? Drop the gun, not the football, you NFL "protesters"! What's next?
"Tis the mild 'idealists' who start your revolutions, and when the revolution turns into executions, the first ones on the list are the mild idealists."
How's that one for a "cliché"? It's a line from a 1960s poem, when our current establishment leaders were sophomores in college or in junior high school, getting high (there's a reason it's called "dope"). I just made that up.
PPS: The concluding quotations:
"America is not to be made a polyglot boarding house for money hunters of 20 different nationalities who have changed their former country for this country only as farm yard beasts change one feeding trough for another.
"America is a nation. No man has any right to come here and no man should be permitted to stay here unless he becomes an American and nothing else. We must have in this country only one flag and that flag the American flag, only one language, the English language." – Theodore Roosevelt
"I offer the single most politically incorrect statement a modern American – indeed a modern Westerner, period – can make: I first look to the Bible for moral guidance and for wisdom.
"I say this even though I am not a Christian (I am a Jew, and a non-Orthodox one at that). And I say this even though I attended an Ivy League graduate school (Columbia), where I learned nothing about the Bible except that it was [supposedly] irrelevant, outdated [etc.]. ." – Dennis Prager
Some people think we're on thin ice. SOME PEOPLE DON'T EVEN SEE THE ICE ANYMORE.
© Curtis Dahlgren
September 14, 2016
"The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails." – William Arthur Ward
"What we change inwardly will change outer reality." – Plutarch
"Change your thoughts and you change your world." – Norman Vincent Peale
IF 'POSITIVE THINKER' NORMAN VINCENT PEALE were alive today, he might be on a psychiatrist's couch. So many problems, so little, little, time to fix them. The hour glass is less than half full. The sands of time are draining. And society is circling the drain.
It has been a few thousand years since Solomon put together a bunch of proverbs, so here, in a certain order, is a 21st century collection (partly from the Top 100 via BrainyQuote.com):
"I'M SORRY. IF YOU WERE RIGHT, I'D AGREE WITH YOU." – Robin Williams
"If your enemy is laughing, he can't bludgeon you." – Mel Brooks
"If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door!" – Milton Berle [i.e., get a diploma, not a lottery ticket!]
"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream." – Les Brown
"Nothing is impossible; the word itself says 'I'm possible'!" – Audrey Hepburn
"A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way." – John Maxwell
"A good example is far better than a good precept." – Dwight L. Moody
"Where one man reads the Bible, a hundred read you and me." – Moody
"As with socialism, Christianity's worst recommendation is its adherents." – unknown
"It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man." – H.L. Mencken
"Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools speak because they want to say something." – Plato
"There is no better book with which to defend the Bible than the Bible itself." – Moody
"God never made a promise that was too good to be true." – Moody
"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without a fight." – Sun Tzu
"I will fight your battles for you." – God
"If your enemy is laughing . . . "
P.S. Feeling "oppressed?" Picked on by the police? Drop the gun, not the football, you NFL "protesters"! What's next?
"Tis the mild 'idealists' who start your revolutions, and when the revolution turns into executions, the first ones on the list are the mild idealists."
How's that one for a "cliché"? It's a line from a 1960s poem, when our current establishment leaders were sophomores in college or in junior high school, getting high (there's a reason it's called "dope"). I just made that up.
PPS: The concluding quotations:
"America is not to be made a polyglot boarding house for money hunters of 20 different nationalities who have changed their former country for this country only as farm yard beasts change one feeding trough for another.
"America is a nation. No man has any right to come here and no man should be permitted to stay here unless he becomes an American and nothing else. We must have in this country only one flag and that flag the American flag, only one language, the English language." – Theodore Roosevelt
"I offer the single most politically incorrect statement a modern American – indeed a modern Westerner, period – can make: I first look to the Bible for moral guidance and for wisdom.
"I say this even though I am not a Christian (I am a Jew, and a non-Orthodox one at that). And I say this even though I attended an Ivy League graduate school (Columbia), where I learned nothing about the Bible except that it was [supposedly] irrelevant, outdated [etc.]. ." – Dennis Prager
Some people think we're on thin ice. SOME PEOPLE DON'T EVEN SEE THE ICE ANYMORE.
© Curtis Dahlgren
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
