LEARNING FROM GREAT MEN (PART 2)

 

          LEARNING FROM GREAT MEN  (PART 2)

1.  At the very outset some important DON’TS:

*Don’t make a mountain of a mole hill.

*Don’t burn your fingers in somebody else’s fire.

*Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched.

*Don’t put all your eggs in a single basket.

*Don’t put too many irons in the fire.  

*Don’t judge a book by its cover.

2.  Thus Spake A.P.J.Abdul Kalam (1831-2015), Former President of India.  

(i). God our creator; has stored within our minds and personalities, great potential strength and ability. Prayer helps us tap and develop these powers.

(ii). To succeed in your mission, you must have single-minded devotion to your goal.

(iii). Great dreams of great dreamers are always transcended.

(iv). Life is a difficult game. You  can win it only by retaining your birthright to be a person.

(v). Do not lose hope and courage. Success can only come to you by ccourageous devotion to the task lying in front of you.

(vi). Dream transforms into thoughts and thoughts result into actions.

(vii). Every pain gives a lesson and every lesson changes a person.

(viii). Confidence and hard work is the best medicine to kill the disease called failure. It will make you a successful person.

(ix). Good behavior doesn’t have any monetary value. But, it has the power to purchase million hearts.

(x). If you fail, never give up because Fail means “First Attempt In Learning”.                                                            -----------

PUNCHLINE: Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.---------------Napoleon Bonaparte

                                                           

G.R.Kanwal

18 August 2026   

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LEARNING FROM GREAT MEN (PART I)

 

                LEARNING FROM GREAT MEN (PART I)

            To read the biographies of great men is to discover how they became great and what were the magnificent thoughts which made them so.

            The American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) says in his poem A Psalm of Life :

            Lives of great men all remind us

            We can make our lives sublime,       

            And, departing leave behind us

            Footprints on the sands of time :-

           

            Footprints, that perhaps another,

            Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,

            A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

            Seeing, shall take heart again.

 

            Let us, hen be up and doing,

            With a heart for any fate ;

            Still achieving, still pursuing,

            Learn to labour and to wait.

           

            From the life of Siddhartha Gautama, universally  known as Lord Buddha  who was born a prince in Lumbini (modern Nepal) in  (c.480 BCE)   and lived about 80 years, we learn the Four Noble Truths :

 

            1. Life involves pain, dissatisfaction, imperfection, and impermanence. 2. Suffering stems from craving, selfish desire, and attachment tied to ignorance. 3. Suffering ends when you let go of craving and attain liberation, known as Nirvana. 4. The practical way to end suffering  is the Noble Eightfold Path.

           

            The details of The Noble Eightfold Path are:

 

Right understanding; Right Thinking; Right Speaking; Right Action i.e. abstaining from killing, stealing, harmful sexual misconduct; Right Livelihood i.e. earning a living without harming others; Right Effort i.e. adopting healthy mental tendencies; Right Mindfulness i.e. maintaining steady consciousness of body, feelings, and mind; Right Concentration, i.e. developing deep mental focus and tranquility trough meditation.      

 

            Lord Buddha is just one of the great men in history. In this blog, here is one more example. It is of Mahatma Gandhi, the great Indian spiritualist  and follower of non-violence  (1869-1948).  This is what he says about the issue of revenge:

            Let us dismiss all thought of revenge from our hearts. Revenge is not the way of peace. It is not humanity. The Hindu scripture teach forgiveness as the highest virtue, Forgiveness becomes a brave man. ---(Source: Harijan : November 17, 1946).

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G.R. .Kanwal

17 August 2026                                                     

THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK

 

          THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK

            The full proverb is “ Think before ou speak, and look before you leap.”

            Thoughtless speech can be dangerous. When you speak spontaneously, you get no time to examine the consequences of what you say.

            Never forget that the essential purpose of an ideal speech is to heal, not to hurt.

            Also remember, that words cut deeper than the sword. The cuts of a sword heal up sooner than those of the tongue.

            Somebody rightly said that “The true purpose of speech is to share ideas, spark action, and connect mind.” It can also be said that a good speech should turn enemies into friends, not friends into enemies.  

            Gandhiji (1869-1948) said: Man spoils matters much more by speech than by silence. He suggests: Look at Nature. She is continuously in action, never rests for a single moment, yet is mute.

             Here are some famous quotes:-

1.     Speech is a faculty given to man to conceal his thoughts.---Talleyrand, French clergyman and statesman (1754-1838).

2.     A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.---Confucius, Chinese philosopher (Died 479 BC).

3.     According  to Solomon, life and death are in the power of the tongue; and as Euripides truly affirmeth, every unbridled tongue in the end shall find itself unfortunate; in all that ever I observed I ever found that men’s fortunes are oftener made by their tongues  than by their virtues, and more men’s fortunes overthrown thereby, also, than by their vices.---Sir Walter Raleigh, English statesman and writer (1552-1618).

4.     There are three things that ought to be considered before Some things are spoken, --the manner, the place, and the time.----Robert Southey, English poet (1774-1843).

5.     Never rise to speak till you have something to say; and when you have said it, cease.----John Witherspoon, OTTISH DIVINE (1723-1794)/

6.     Discretion of speech is more than eloquence; and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words, or in good order.---Francis Bacon, English philosopher and essayist (1561-1626).

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G.R.Kanwal

16 August 2026  

 

 

 

OSCAR WILDE’S EPIGRAMS ON THOUGHT

 

          OSCAR WILDE’S EPIGRAMS ON THOUGHT

            A thought is defined as something a person thinks of or remembers.

            And thoughts are said to be a person’s mind and all the ideas that are there  when thinking is going on.

            Some important synonyms of thought are : Idea, judgement, conclusion, appraisal, assessment, estimation, opinion,  point of view, position, stance  , stand, feeling, sentiment, belief, conviction, etc.

            Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was an Irish poet, novelist and playwright. He became famous due to his sharp wit, flamboyant style and  playing a leading role in the aesthetic movement which promoted art for art’s sake.

            He is most famous for his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), a brilliant comedy The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) and his large number of epigrams under various heads.

            According to a literary critic Wilde considered thought to be more important than action, and regarded contemplation as the most cultured way of living.

            When at home, he spent hours, lying on a sofa, expending his energies of thought.  

            Given below are some of his great epigrams on THOUGHT.

1.     A thought is immoral. Its very essence is destruction. If you think of anything, you kill it. Nothing survives being thought.  

 

2.     The value of an idea has nothing whatsoever to do with the sincerity of the man who expresses it.

3.     Consistency is the las refuge of the unimaginative.

4.     An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.

5.     Only the shallow know themselves.

6.     Men of thought should have nothing to do with action.

7.     “What are you thinking?” is the only question that any civilized being should ever be allowed to whisper to another.

8.     Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.

9.     Action ! What is action? It dies at the moment of its energy. It is a base concession to fact, The world is made by the singer for the dreamer !

10.            Intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of any face. The moment one sits down to think, one  becomes all nose, all forehead, or something horrid.

 

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PUNCHLINE: I CAN STAND BRUTE FORCE, BUT BRUTE REASON IS QUITE

UNREASONABLE.

 

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G. R. Kanwal

15 August 2026

 

 

 

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QUOTES THAT MATTER

 

QUOTES THAT MATTER         

1. The only freedom worth possessing is that which gives enlargement to a people’s energy, intellect, and virtues. The savage makes his boast of  freedom.  But what is its worth?  He is indeed, free from what he calls the yoke of civil institutions. But other and worse chains bind him, The very privation of civil government is in effect a chair; for, by                                                 withholding protection from property it virtually shackles the arm of industry, and forbids exertion for the melioration of his lot. Progress, the growth  of intelligence and power, is the end and boon of liberty; and without this, a people may have the name, but want the substance and spirit of freedom.----American  clergy, William Ellery Channing (1780-1848).   
2. The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good, in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. ----English economist John Stuart Mill (1806-1872).
3. A useful definition of liberty is obtained only by seeking the principle of liberty in the main business of human life, that is to say, in the process by which men educate their response and learn to control their environment. -----American author and editor Walter  Lippman  (1889-1974).
4. Freedom requires action, responsibility, and respect for others.----Indian lawyer and anti-colonial nationalist Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948).
5. Man is born free, and everywhere he is chains. -----Genevan philosopher and writer Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778).
6. The English poet John Milton (1608-1674)  defined freedom as the power of human reason to choose good over evil.
7. The character Satan in  John Milton’s book Paradise Lost, Book II, said : “Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven”.
8. True freedom demands incessant hard work and the service of suffering millions. -----Former Indian Prime Minister Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) in his Tryst with Destiny Speech on August 14, 1947.

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G.R.Kanwal

14 August 2026

                                                           

A BOUQUET OF GREAT THOUGHTS

 

                A BOUQUET OF GREAT THOUGHTS

            Great thoughts are found in the writings of great poets, thinkers, seers, sages, philosophers, statesmen, social reformers, and religious scholars. To find, remember, and translate them into action is to become morally and philosophically wiser and richer.   

            Look at the following thoughts and absorb them into your memory  for  synthesizing them  with your practical life.

1.     Guilt, according to some scholars, is something that can be overcome. It does not exist in Buddhist terminology. With the Buddha nature all negative things can be purified. Guilt is incompatible with our (Buddhist) thinking as you are part of an action but not fully responsible for it.

However, in some cases one must repent, deliberately hold responsibility, have regret and never commit the mistake again.----His Holiness The Dalai Lama in The Path To Tranquillity (A Book of Daily Meditations).    

2.     The river and its waves are one surf: where is the difference between the river and its waves? When the wave rises, it is the water; and when it falls, it is the same water again. Where is the distinction? Because it has been named as wave, shall it no longer be considered as water?----Indian devotional mystic poet and saint,  Kabir(1398-1518).

3.     The way of lovers is different. To them, lies from each other are better than truth from others.---Sufi mystic and Persian poet Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi  (1207-1273).

Rumi also said: You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean, in a drop.

4.     He who does reverence to his own sect, while disparaging the sects of others, wholly from attachment to his own, with intent to enhance the glory of his own sect, in reality, by such conduct, inflicts the severest injury on his own sect. Concord, therefore, is meritorious.----Asoka the Great (Died 232 BC at Pataliputra)  former emperor of the Maurya Empire in his twelfth edict.

5.     More things are wrought by prayer than the world dreams of. What are men better than sheep or goats, that nourish a blind life within the brain, if, knowing God, they lift no hands of prayer both for themselves and those who call them friends !-----The English poet Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892).

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PUNCHLINE: The more you speak of yourself, the more you are likely to lie.

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G. R. Kanwal

13 August 2026

 

IMPORTANCE OF 12TH AUGUST

 

 

                                IMPORTANCE OF 12^TH AUGUST

            August 12 is globally recognized as International Youth Day. It is devoted to thinking about the issues of youth, especially about their education, all-round development, opportunities for employment, and general satisfaction of their life’s needs and specific aims.

            The qualities of youth recognized by most of the countries are : High energy, boundless curiosity, intense passion, and a strong desire to learn.

            According to an overview : “Young people often possess great physical and mental vitality, a readiness to take healthy risks, deep adaptability to change, and an optimistic outlook on the future. “

            The philosophy of life has many varieties. Two of them are first: “Laugh, drink, and be merry;” and the other one : “Simple living, and high thinking.”

             The American philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) says

            “Not gold, but only men can make

            A people great and strong---

            Men who, for truth and honour’s sake,

            Stand fast and suffer long.

 

            Brave men who work while others sleep,

            Who dare while others fly,

            They build a nation’s pillars deep,

            And lift them to the sky.”

 

            Another American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882 ) says in his poem A PSALM OF LIFE :

           

            “Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,

            Is our destined end or way :

            But to act, that each tomorrow

            Finds us farther than today.

 

            Art is long, and Time is fleeting,

            And our hearts, though stout and brave,

            Still, like muffled drums, are beating

            Funeral marches to the grave.

 

            In the world’s broad field of battle,

            In the bivouac of Life,

            Be not like dumb, driven cattle !

            Be a hero in the strife !

 

            Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant !

            Let the dead past bury its dead !

            Act –act in the living Present !

            Heart within, and God o’erhead !

 

PUNCHLINE: Almost everything that is great has been done by youth.-----Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), Prime Minister of U.K.

                       

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G.R.Kanwal  

12 August 2026