A LETTER TO SON’S TEACHER

 

A  LETTER TO  SON’S TEACHER

            This is a condensed heading of Abraham Lincoln’s  Letter to His Son’s Teacher.

            Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)  was the 16th  President of the United States from 1861 until his death by assassination in 1865. He became famous for  leading his country through the Civil War, preserving the union, and abolishing slavery. He is also known all over world for his faith in democracy and providing its exact definition as“ a government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

            It is rare for great men like Abraham Lincoln to take a deep interest in their son’s education and tell their teacher through a letter how to deal with the innocent child to make him a perfect gentleman.

            Whereas Lincoln is famous for several quotes like :”A house divided against itself cannot stand”, the contents of his letter to the son’s teacher have eternal guidelines for educationists at the elementary stage.

            Given below is the full text of the letter:-   

    My son starts school today. It is all going to be strange and new to him for a while and I wish you would treat him gently. It is an adventure that might take him across continents. All adventures that probably include wars, tragedy and sorrow. To live this life will require faith, love and courage.

 

So dear Teacher, will you please take him by his hand and teach him things he will have to know, teaching him – but gently, if you can.

 

Teach him that for every enemy, there is a friend. He will have to know that all men are not just, that all men are not true. But teach him also that for every scoundrel there is a hero, that for every crooked politician, there is a dedicated leader.

 

Teach him if you can that 10 cents earned is of far more value than a dollar found. In school, teacher, it is far more honorable to fail than to cheat.

 

Teach him to learn how to gracefully lose, and enjoy winning when he does win.

 

Teach him to be gentle with people, tough with tough people.

 

Steer him away from envy if you can and teach him the secret of quiet laughter.

 

Teach him if you can – how to laugh when he is sad, teach him there is no shame in tears. Teach him there can be glory in failure and despair in success. Teach him to scoff at cynics.

 

Teach him if you can the wonders of books, but also give time to ponder the extreme mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun and flowers on a green hill.

 

Teach him to have faith in his own ideas, even if every one tells him they are wrong.

 

Try to give my son the strength not to follow the crowd when everyone else is doing it.

 

Teach him to listen to every one, but teach him also to filter all that he hears on a screen of truth and take only the good that comes through.

 

Teach him to sell his talents and brains to the highest bidder but never to put a price tag on his heart and soul.

 

Let him have the courage to be impatient, let him have the patient to be brave. Teach him to have sublime faith in himself, because then he will always have sublime faith in mankind, in God.

 

This is the order, teacher but see what best you can do. He is such a nice little boy and he is my son.

 

                                                            *******

G.R.Kanwal

11 February 2026

 

PROMINENT QUALITIES OF A GOOD FRIEND

 

                                PROMINENT QUALITIES OF A GOOD FRIEND

            A friend is a person with whom you have a bond of mutual affection. An expanded definition will include someone whom you know well, like whole-heatedly, share with him  your inns and outs, rely on him in difficult days, spend with him your precious time and offer him your companionship , material and moral support day in and day out.

            A good friend possesses a large number of key qualities.  Some of these are:

*Deep liking, fondness, affection, reliance, trust, support, companionship, co-operation, helpfulness; acceptance of each other’s flaws, weaknesses and shortcomings; appreciation of each other’s good qualities, strong points, and beneficial  traits;  understanding areas of mutual co-operativeness; willingness to share each other’s secrets, aims, objectives and destinations; appreciating each other’s likes and dislikes; helping each other in hard times and encouraging each other in requisite situations.

**Good friends are sincere, loyal and faithful. They are unselfish. They are not unnecessarily critical. They are most dependable advisors and counsellors. They are always ready to do their best for their friends even at a heavy cost to themselves.

***Good friends know the true meanings of love, affection, faithfulness, self-sacrifice, forget and forgiveness, co-operation, kindness, sincerity,  and genuine gratitude.

            Finally, these views on the subject:

 *A good friend is the masterpiece of nature.

**A good friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.    

*** The greatest sweetener of one’s life is good friendship.

****Anything is possible when you have a good friend to stand by you.

*****A good friend can make you a new, better, and more successful  person.

                                                *******

G.R.Kanwal

9 February 2026

 

TWENTY LIFETIME THOUGHTS

 

                TWENTY LIFETIME THOUGHTS  

1.     You have to believe in yourself when no one else does.

2.     Spread love wherever you go,

3.     Live life to the fullest while focusing on the positive ideas.

4.     You will face many defeats in life, but should never let yourself feel defeated.

5.     Make every moment count.

6.     Life is a dynamic, personal experience, a journey of growth.

7.     Always be prompt----The early bird catches the worm.  

8.     Appearances are deceptive.

9.     Actions speak louder than words.

10.                        Be yourself, master your mind, create your destiny.

11.                        Anger is like an oven, heat without light.

12.                        Surround yourself with uplifting people.

13.                        Be the change you want to see in the world.

14.                         Happiness is not by chance, but by choice.

15.                        Iy you can’t do great things, you can do small things in a great way.

16.                        To thine own self, be true.

17.                         Your greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time you fall.

18.                        Be the sunshine on the cloudy day.

19.                        Time is long but life is short.

20.                        Courage does not roar.

                                                            *******

G. R. Kanwal

8^th February 2026

 

ALL ABOUT AMBITION

 

          ALL ABOUT AMBITION

            “Ambition” is life’s zest and seal. It is literally defined as “something  that you want to do or achieve very much. An ambitious person is determined to be successful by using all his physical, mental, material and moral resources.

            Ambitions can be small as well as big, short-term as well as long-term.

            Most of the ambitions require suitable talents and appropriate resources like money, time, knowledge, techniques, co-operation, supporters ,  guides, etc.

            Ambitions can be of various types like becoming an educationist, a writer, an army  officer, a political leader, a government official, a great businessman, a discoverer, an inventor, a pilot, a manufacturer, a religious leader, etc.

            A meaningful ambition is not confined to one’s own desire or dream but also  related to the needs of other people.

            Ambitions are legitimate. To try to fulfill one’s dreams is not undesirable provided  they should be achievable as a proverb says: Cut your coat according to your cloth. William Shakespeare (English poet-playwright 1564-1616)  refers to it as “Vaulting ambition , which overleaps itself.”

            Look at the following quotes of similar type:

*It is by attempting to reach the top at a single leap, that so much misery is caused in the world. ---- Anglo –American political writer William Cobbett (1766-1835).

**It is the constant fault and inseparable evil quality of ambition, that it never looks behind it. ------Italian philosopher Loucius Annaeus Seneca (Died Rome 65 AD).

***Ambition is so powerful a passion in the human breast, that however high we reach we are never satisfied,---Niccolo Machiaveli, Italian diplomat, author, historian and philosopher (1469-1527).

****Ambition is like love, impatient both of delays and rivals.---Sir John Denham, English poet (1615-69).

*****Nothing is too high for the daring of mortals ; they storm heaven itself in their folly,-----The Roman poet Horace  (65-BC---8 B.C.)

 

                                                **********

G.R.Kanwal

6^th February 2026   

 

MORE QUOTES ON WAR

 

                MORE QUOTES ON WAR

1/As a child King Ashoka (died 232 BC), most commonly known as Ashoka the Great, entreated his tutors to relate to him the stories of horrible  wars. He shunned cultural stories which lacked the terrible events of war. But as a king after winning the War of Kalinga which started in 261 BC and he won it, his mind changed, he abandoned his interest in war and he adopted Buddhism as his religion because he had then realized the heavy cost of  winning the victory. Thousands of men were killed and thousands of them were gripped by several types of suffering including widowhood, orphanage and physical damages. Instead of taking interest in military conquests, he now undertook an introspective journey not only human welfare but also about that of  birds and beasts.

 

2. In our times Mohandas Karamachand Gandhi (1869-1948 ) who became known as apostle of non-violence said in Haijan : September 2, 1939: I personally would not purchase my own country’s freedom by violence, even  if such a thing were a possibility. My faith in the wise saying, that what is gained by the sword will also be lost by the sword, is imperishable.

 

3. According to Mahatma Gandhi (as he is now popularly known  :When two nations are fighting, the duty of a votary of Ahimsa (non-violence) is to stop the war. He who is not equal to that duty, he who has no power of resisting war, he who is not qualified to resist war , may take part in war, and yet whole-heartedly try to free himself, his nation and world from war. I make no distinction , from the point of view of Ahimsa, between combatants and non-combatants. ----Wit and Wisdom of Mahatma Gandhi.    

 

4. Militarism and warfare are childish things, if they are not more horrible than anything childish can be.  They must become things of the past. ------English writer H.G.Wells (1866-1946).     

 

5.A great war leaves the country with three armies ---an army of cripples, an army of mourners, and an army of thieves.----German Proverb

                                                ________

G.R.Kanwal

5^th February 2026

 

 

QUOTES ON WAR

 

QUOTES ON WAR            

            War is defined as a situation in which two or more countries or groups of people fight against each other over a period of time.

             There are no humanitatian or civilisational gains in war. The overall results are death and destruction, the ill effects of which last for decades and become a valid ground for future wars as a matter of revenge or retaliation.  

            Before as also after war Scientists are encouraged to invent deadliest weapons at heaviest costs. The invention and utilization of Atom Bomb and Hydrogen bomb even today are not very old. Along with bombs other war material of ruinous nature is also discovered, invented or and manufactured. War material is now a fashionable business item.

            There are many factors which make war deadly and devilish. It will not take months, at most a few days, to convert this world into a horrible hell by using modern weapons and other combative devices.

            Here are some famous war quotes, both old and recent, reflecting the brutality and other costs of warfare.

1.If we don’t end war, war will end us. Scientist, novelist and historian H. G. Wells (1866=1946).

2. Only the dead have seen the end of war. ---Greek philosopher Plato.

3. It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war. ----EX-President of America John. F. Kennedy.

4. War does not determine who is right --- only who is left. (A Brainy Quote)----Lord Bertrand Russell (1872-1970).

5. The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.----- United States General George Smith  Patton (1885-!945).

6. Living in war is a co-existence with death.----Zainab Salbi, Iraqi-American activist and writer. She was born at Baghdad in Iraq , on 24 September 1969. She is women’s rights activist.

                                                *******

G.R.Kanwal

February 3, 2026

LIVING

 

                LIVING           

                        What follows is a ten-line anonymous poem titled ‘Living”. Its purpose is to give useful hints to the readers about spending their life time joyfully in this world.

            We shall have a look at each line separately and try to learn from it whatever we can about the art of living.

1.To touch the cup with eager lips and taste, and drain.

The cup here means the cup of life. Let us hold it eagerly and decently and drink its contents gradually. There should be no haste, no hurry.

2. To woo and tempt and court a bliss---and not attain it’

      Try to win over a sort of life’s bliss but not succeed in attaining it as much as you try.

3. To fondle and caress a joy, yet hold it lightly.

       Do long and embrace a joy of life but not hold it tightly. Do it gently.

4.  Lest it become necessity and cling too tightly.

      We should not make any joy an addiction, a habit, or a necessity.

5. To watch the sun set in the west without regretting.

     We should not feel sad when the sun which rises in the east in the morning sets in the west in the evening.

6. To hail its advent in the east-the night forgetting.  

      We should welcome the arrival of the  sun in the in the morning but should not forget that it will disappear at night.

7. To smother care in happiness and grief in laughter.

       We should keep a touch of care or worry in happiness and grief in laughter.

8. To hold the present close ---not questioning hereafter.

       It is fine to focus ourselves closely on the present time but should not forget that it will be over and the future will follow.

9. To have enough to share ---to know the joy of giving.

     We must not spend all our assets immediately; on the other hand making savings and share them with other needy people because there is a joy of giving.

10. To thrill with all the sweets of life ---is living.

In this final line the anonymous poet gives his central message and that is sharing our sweet joys of life with other people.  

                                                *****

G.R.Kanwal

2^nd February 2026