Stix Blog

Apologies, Kindness and Temptation

I haven't posted in awhile, but this quote I came across just begged for sharing.  Something to really think about.

"A stiff apology is a second insult... The injured party does not want to be compensated because he has been wronged; he wants to be healed because he has been hurt."

- Gilbert K Chesterton

Another great and hokey quote curtesy of a friend:

"Be kinder than necessary; everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle."

And here's an illustrated quote from Lane Olinghouse, whoever that is, from a 2008 Engagement Calendar called "Bad Kitties" from Willow Creek Press:

Julia

Founders Quote of the Day

We should never despair, our Situation before has been unpromising and has changed for the better, so I trust, it will again. If new difficulties arise, we must only put forth new Exertions and proportion our Efforts to the exigency of the times.-- George Washington (letter to Philip Schuyler, 7/15/1777)

Founders Quote of the Day

Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread.-- Thomas Jefferson (Autobiography, 1821)

Founders Quote of the Day

Is the relinquishment of the trial by jury and the liberty of the press necessary for your liberty? Will the abandonment of your most sacred rights tend to the security of your liberty? Liberty, the greatest of all earthly blessings - give us that precious jewel, and you may take every things else! Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel.-- Patrick Henry (Speech to the Virginia Convention, 5 June 1788)

Founders Quote of the Day

I believe a time will come when an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable evil. Everything we do is to improve it, if it happens in our day; if not, let us transmit to our descendants, together with our slaves, a pity for their unhappy lot and an abhorrence of slavery.-- Patrick Henry (letter to Robert Pleasants, 18 January 1773)

Founders Quote of the Day

The fabric of American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of THE CONSENT OF THE PEOPLE. The streams of national power ought to flow from that pure, original fountain of all legitimate authority.-- Alexander Hamilton (Federalist No. 22, 14 December 1787)

Founders Quote of the Day

Have you something to do to-morrow; do it to-day.-- Benjamin Franklin (Poor Richard's Almanack, 1742)

Founders Quote of the Day

The moral precepts delivered in the sacred oracles form a part of the law of nature, are of the same origin and of the same obligation, operating universally and perpetually.-- James Wilson (Of the Law of Nature, 1804)

Founders Quote of the Day

Remember, that Time is Money.-- Benjamin Franklin (Advice to a Young Tradesman, 1748)

Founders Quote of the Day

It is not necessary to enumerate the many advantages, that arise from this custom of early marriages. They comprehend all the society can receive from this source; from the preservation, and increase of the human race. Every thing useful and beneficial to man, seems to be connected with obedience to the laws of his nature, the inclinations, the duties, and the happiness of individuals, resolve themselves into customs and habits, favourable, in the highest degree, to society. In no case is this more apparent, than in the customs of nations respecting marriage.-- Samuel Williams (The Natural and Civil History of Vermont, 1794)

Founders Quote of the Day

Without wishing to damp the ardor of curiosity or influence the freedom of inquiry, I will hazard a prediction that, after the most industrious and impartial researchers, the longest liver of you all will find no principles, institutions or systems of education more fit in general to be transmitted to your posterity than those you have received from your ancestors.-- John Adams (letter to the young men of the Philadelphia, 7 May 1798)

Founders Quote of the Day

Men of energy of character must have enemies; because there are two sides to every question, and taking one with decision, and acting on it with effect, those who take the other will of course be hostile in proportion as they feel that effect.-- Thomas Jefferson (letter to John Adams, 21 December 1817)

Founders Quote of the Day

A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.-- James Madison (letter to W.T. Barry, 4 August 1822)

Founders Quote of the Day

Without Freedom of Thought there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as Public Liberty, without Freedom of Speech.-- Benjamin Franklin (writing as Silence Dogood, No. 8, 9 July 1722)

Founders Quote of the Day

[W]e are confirmed in the opinion, that the present age would be deficient in their duty to God, their posterity and themselves, if they do not establish an American republic. This is the only form of government we wish to see established; for we can never be willingly subject to any other King than He who, being possessed of infinite wisdom, goodness and rectitude, is alone fit to possess unlimited power.Instructions of Malden, Massachusetts for a Declaration of Independence, 27 May 1776

Founders Quote of the Day

Energy in the executive is a leading character in the definition of good government. It is essential to the protection of the community against foreign attacks; it is not less essential to the steady administration of the laws; to the protection of property against those irregular and high-handed combinations which sometimes interrupt the ordinary course of justice; to the security of liberty against the enterprises and assaults of ambition, of faction, and of anarchy.-- Alexander Hamilton (Federalist No. 69, 14 March 1788)

Founders Quote of the Day

Objects of the most stupendous magnitude, and measure in which the lives and liberties of millions yet unborn are intimately interested, are now before us. We are in the very midst of a revolution the most complete, unexpected and remarkable of any in the history of nations.-- John Adams (letter to William Cushing

Founders Quote of the Day

Objects of the most stupendous magnitude, and measure in which the lives and liberties of millions yet unborn are intimately interested, are now before us. We are in the very midst of a revolution the most complete, unexpected and remarkable of any in the history of nations.-- John Adams (letter to William Cushing

Founders Quote of the Day

People generally have more feeling for canals and roads than education. However, I hope we can advance them with equal pace.-- Thomas Jefferson (letter to Joel Barlow, 10 December 1807)

Founders Quote of the Day

The pyramid of government-and a republican government may well receive that beautiful and solid form-should be raised to a dignified altitude: but its foundations must, of consequence, be broad, and strong, and deep. The authority, the interests, and the affections of the people at large are the only foundation, on which a superstructure proposed to be at once durable and magnificent, can be rationally erected.-- James Wilson

Founders Quote of the Day

As our president bears no resemblance to a king so we shall see the Senate has no similitude to nobles. First, not being hereditary, their collective knowledge, wisdom, and virtue are not precarious. For by these qualities alone are they to obtain their offices, and they will have none of the peculiar qualities and vices of those men who possess power merely because their father held it before them.-- Tench Coxe (An American Citizen, No.2, 28 September 1787)

Founders Quote of the Day

The blessed Religion revealed in the word of God will remain an eternal and awful monument to prove that the best Institution may be abused by human depravity; and that they may even, in some instances be made subservient to the vilest purposes. Should, hereafter, those incited by the lust of power and prompted by the Supineness or venality of their Constituents, overleap the known barriers of this Constitution and violate the unalienable rights of humanity: it will only serve to shew, that no compact among men (however provident in its construction and sacred in its ratification) can be pronounced everlasting an inviolable, and if I may so express myself, that no Wall of words, that no mound of parchm[en]t can be so formed as to stand against the sweeping torrent of boundless ambition on the side, aided by the sapping current of corrupted morals on the other.-- George Washington (fragments of the Draft First Inaugural Address, April 1789)

Founder's Quote of the Day

The Sun never shined on a cause of greater worth.-- Thomas Paine (Common Sense, 1776)

Founder's Quote of the Day

[H]owever weak our country may be, I hope we shall never sacrifice our liberties.-- Alexander Hamilton (Report on a National Bank, 13 December 1790)

Founder's Quote of the Day

[T]he first transactions of a nation, like those of an individual upon his first entrance into life make the deepest impression, and are to form the leading traits in its character.-- George Washington (letter to John Armstrong, 25 April 1788)

Founder's Quote of the Day

Our properties within our own territories [should not] be taxed or regulated by any power on earth but our own.-- Thomas Jefferson (Rights of British America, 1774)

Founder's Quote of the Day

The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have past at home in the bosom of my family.-- Thomas Jefferson (letter to Francis Willis Jr., 18 April 1790)

Founder's Quote of the Day

The state governments have a full superintendence and control over the immense mass of local interests of their respective states, which connect themselves with the feelings, the affections, the municipal institutions, and the internal arrangements of the whole population. They possess, too, the immediate administration of justice in all cases, civil and criminal, which concern the property, personal rights, and peaceful pursuits of their own citizens.-- Joseph Story (Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833)

Founder's Quote of the Day

T]he government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.-- James Madison (speech in the House of Representatives, 10 January 1794)

Founder's Quote of the Day

A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.-- Thomas Jefferson (Rights of British America, 1774)

Founder's Quote of the Day

So that the executive and legislative branches of the national government depend upon, and emanate from the states. Every where the state sovereignties are represented; and the national sovereignty, as such, has no representation.-- Joseph Story (Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833)

Founder's Quote of the Day

The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations.-- George Washington (Farewell Address, 1796)

Founder's Quote of the Day

We have heard of the impious doctrine in the old world, that the people were made for kings, not kings for the people. Is the same doctrine to be revived in the new, in another shape - that the solid happiness of the people is to be sacrificed to the views of political institutions of a different form? It is too early for politicians to presume on our forgetting that the public good, the real welfare of the great body of the people, is the supreme object to be pursued; and that no form of government whatever has any other value than as it may be fitted for the attainment of this object.-- James Madison (Federalist No. 45)

Founder's Quote of the Day

[H]onesty will be found on every experiment, to be the best and only true policy; let us then as a Nation be just.-- George Washington (Circular letter to the States, 14 June 1783)

Founder's Quote of the Day

Reading, reflection and time have convinced me that the interests of society require the observation of those moral precepts...in which all religions agree.-- Thomas Jefferson (Westmoreland County Petition, 2 November 1785)

Founder's Quote of the Day

First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in humble and enduring scenes of private life. Pious, just humane, temperate, and sincere; uniform dignified, and commanding; his example was as edifying to all around him as were the effects of that example lasting; correct throughout, vice shuddered in his presence and virtue always felt his fostering hand. The purity of his private charter gave effulgence to his public virtues;. Such was the man for whom our nation morns-- John Marshall (official eulogy of George Washington, delivered by Richard Henry Lee, 26 December 1799)

G. K. Chesterton,

The Anchoress has been posting some  G. K. Chesterton quotes and I like this one.

“Idolatry is committed, not merely by setting up false gods, but also by setting up false devils; by making men afraid of war or alcohol, or economic law, when they should be afraid of spiritual corruption and cowardice.” - G. K. Chesterton, Illustrated London News 9/11/09

Founder's Quote of the Day

No one more sincerely wishes the spread of information among mankind than I do, and none has greater confidence in its effect towards supporting free and good government.-- Thomas Jefferson (letter to Trustees for the Lottery of East Tennessee College, 6 May 1810)

Founder's Quote of the Day

The best service that can be rendered to a Country, next to that of giving it liberty, is in diffusing the mental improvement equally essential to the preservation, and the enjoyment of the blessing.-- James Madison (letter to Littleton Dennis Teackle, 29 March 1826)

Founder's Quote of the Day

[I]f the public are bound to yield obedience to laws to which they cannot give their approbation, they are slaves to those who make such laws and enforce them.-- Candidus (in the Boston Gazette, 20 January 1772)

Founder's Quote of the Day

All the property that is necessary to a Man, for the Conservation of the Individual and the Propagation of the Species, is his natural Right, which none can justly deprive him of: But all Property superfluous to such purposes is the Property of the Publick, who, by their Laws, have created it, and who may therefore by other laws dispose of it, whenever the Welfare of the Publick shall demand such Disposition. He that does not like civil Society on these Terms, let him retire and live among Savages. He can have no right to the benefits of Society, who will not pay his Club towards the Support of it.-- Benjamin Franklin (letter to Robert Morris, 25 December 1783)

Founder's Quote of the Day

All the property that is necessary to a Man, for the Conservation of the Individual and the Propagation of the Species, is his natural Right, which none can justly deprive him of: But all Property superfluous to such purposes is the Property of the Publick, who, by their Laws, have created it, and who may therefore by other laws dispose of it, whenever the Welfare of the Publick shall demand such Disposition. He that does not like civil Society on these Terms, let him retire and live among Savages. He can have no right to the benefits of Society, who will not pay his Club towards the Support of it.-- Benjamin Franklin (letter to Robert Morris, 25 December 1783)

Founder's Quote of the Day

The diversity in the faculties of men from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to a uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government.-- James Madison (Federalist No. 10, 23 November 1787)

Founder's Quote of the Day

The proposed Constitution, so far from implying an abolition of the State governments, makes them constituent parts of the national sovereignty, by allowing them a direct representation in the Senate, and leaves in their possession certain exclusive and very important portions of sovereign power. This fully corresponds, in every rational import of the terms, with the idea of a federal government.-- Alexander Hamilton (Federalist No. 9, 1787)

Founder's Quote of the Day

To give to every citizen the information he needs for the transaction of his own business; To enable him to calculate for himself, and to express and preserve his ideas, his contracts and accounts, in writing; To improve, by reading, his morals and faculties; To understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and to discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either; To know his rights; to exercise with order and justice those he retains; to choose with discretion the fiduciary of those he delegates; and to notice their conduct with diligence, with candor, and judgment; And, in general, to observe with intelligence and faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be placed.-- Thomas Jefferson (Report of the Commissioners for the University of Virginia, 4 August 1818)

Founder's Quote of the Day

Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of.-- James Madison (Federalist No. 46, 1 February 1788)

Founder's Quote of the Day

The citizens of America have too much discernment to be argued into anarchy. and I am much mistaken if experience has not wrought a deep and solemn conviction in the public mind that greater energy of government is essential to the welfare and prosperity of the community.-- Alexander Hamilton (Federalist No. 26)

Founder's Quote of the Day

If a well-regulated militia be the most natural defense of a free country, it ought certainly to be under the regulation and at the disposal of that body which is constituted the guardian of the national security. If standing armies are dangerous to liberty, an efficacious power over the militia in the same body ought, as far as possible, to take away the inducement and the pretext to such unfriendly institutions. If the federal government can command the aid of the militia in those emergencies which call for the military arm in support of the civil magistrate, it can the better dispense with the employment of a different kind of force. If it cannot avail itself of the former, it will be obliged to recur to the latter. To render an army unnecessary will be a more certain method of preventing its existence than a thousand prohibitions upon paper.-- Alexander Hamilton (Federalist No. 29, 10 January 1788)