Feast of Simon & Jude, Apostles Continuing a short series on prayer: Hunger may drive the runaway child home, and he may or may not be fed at home; but he needs his mother more than his dinner. Communion with God is the one need of the soul beyond all other need: prayer is the beginning of that communion, and some need is the motive of that prayer... So begins a communion, a talking with God, a coming-to-one with Him, which is the sole end of prayer, yea, of existence itself in its infinite phases. We must ask that we may receive; but that we should receive what we ask in respect of our lower needs, is not God's end in making us pray, for He could give us everything without that: to bring His child to His knee, God withholds that man may ask.

If you view all the things that happen to you, both good and bad, as opportunities, then you operate out of a higher level of consciousness.

Music is harmony, harmony is perfection, perfection is our dream, and our dream is heaven.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

The scientific theroy I like best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline luggage.

A host of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Freedom Know this, that every man is free To choose his life and what he'll be. For this eternal truth is given, God will force no man to heaven. He'll call, persuade, direct aright, Bless with wisdom, love, and light; In nameless ways be good and kind, But never force the human mind.

Democracy is the form of government that gives every man the right to be his own oppressor.

Few things in the world are more powerful than a positive push. A smile. A word of optimism and hope. A "you can do it" when things are tough.

Great hate follows great love.

It is hard to tell if a man is telling the truth when you know you would lie if you were in his place.

Entire affection hateth nicer hands.

Don't ignore the small things -- the kite flies because of its tail.

All have disappointments, all have times when it isn't worthwhile.

We are violets blue, For our sweetness found Careless in the mossy shades, Looking on the ground. Love's dropp'd eyelids and a kiss,-- Such our breath and blueness is. - Leigh Hunt ,

Pointing out the comic elements of a situation can bring a sense of proportion and perspective to what might otherwise seem an overwhelming problem.

He clasps the crag with hooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ring'd with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls: He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls.

Some say, that Seignior Bononchini Compar'd to Handel's a mere Ninny; Others aver, to him, that Handel Is scarcely fit to hold a candle. Strange! that such high Disputes shou'd be 'Twixt Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

A mad fellow met me on the way and told me I had unloaded all the gibbets and pressed the dead bodies. No eye hath seen such scarecrows. I 'll not march through Coventry with them, that 's flat: nay, and the villains march wide betwixt the legs, as if they had gyves on; for indeed I had the most of them out of prison. There 's but a shirt and a half in all my company; and the half-shirt is two napkins tacked together and thrown over the shoulders like an herald's coat without sleeves. -King Henry IV. Part I. Act iv. Sc. 2.

Noble bold is an accident of fortune; noble actions characterize the great.