TALKING ABOUT ANTS

 

                TALKING ABOUT ANTS

                    Ants are  defined as  small insects that live in highly organized groups. They are usually black or various shades of brown, red, or yellow.  

                        You can find them worldwide . They are universally  known for their industrious nature.  

                        Zoologically ,they are any of 2,500 species of insects constituting the family order to which the bee and the wasp also belong.

            You can regard  them as  cosmopolitan in distribution. All of them  show some degree of social organization. 

            Their body is divided into three distinct regions; the narrow front part of the abdomen, called the waist or pedicel, is characteristic.  

            Due to their over-active nature, the phrase to ‘have ants in you pants’ means you are very excited or impatient about something and unable to stand still.  

            The  idiom  acting like “a colony of ants” means ‘ busy teamwork.’ Or to work together in a highly organized, industrious manner. If you say : “An ant may well destroy a whole dam “, you mean a small overlooked problem can lead to massive failure.

            The idiom small as an ant means something very tiny.

            The proverb ‘Even an ant can make a mountain of crumbs’’ highlights the power of persistence and small, constant efforts.

            “Like a small boy walking across an ant hill” suggests traversing a difficult or treacherous path.

            To inspire for tireless work ethics, the Holy Bible says: Go to an ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.

            Sometimes I find on the floor of my washroom a solitary ant continuously moving very fast and taking a  turn if it finds an obstruction. In such a situation, I do not use water to avoid wetness. The presence of the solitary ant and its speedy movement from one spot to another not only delights my eyes but also inspires me to become exceedingly dynamic.

            To conclude, here is a famous quote by an American Army general, diplomat, and statesman Colin Powel (1937-2021)  :

            “A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.”        

                                                            *******

G.R.Kanwal

30 April 2026

               

 

                 

FIVE QUOTES ON POLITICS

 

                FIVE QUOTES ON POLITICS

            “Politics” is briefly defined as the work and ideas tha are connected with governing a country, a town, etc.

            According to another definition: it refers to the activities, processes, and actions involved in gaining, using, and managing power with a country or society to make collective decisions.

            Given below are ten famous quotes which further enlighten us about the multi-sided nature of politics.

1.     The political parties that I would call great, are those which cling more to principles than to consequences; to general, and not to special cases; to ideas, and not to men.  Such parties are usually distinguished by nobler character, more generous passions, more genuine convictions, and a more bold and open conduct than others.------De Tocqueville ( 1805-1859), a French diplomat, political philosopher and historian.

2.     A politician is like quick-silver: if you try to put your finger on him, you find nothing under it. -----Austin O’Malley (1858-1932) , Professor of English literature at University of Notre Dame and author of a book of aphorisms.

3.     Nothing is more deceitful than the statements that what we need in politics is the business man. Politics are a business --- at least they are a field in which experience tells for usefulness and effectiveness --- and a man who has devoted his entire life to the successful establishment of a business is generally not the man who will be useful to the public in the administration of public business. -----William Howard Taft (1857-1930), 27^th President of the United States from 1909 to 1915 and the tenth chief justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930.

4.     Noting is politically right which is morally wrong. ----Daniel O’Connell (1775-1847), a  political leader of Ireland’s Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19 century

5.     By discharging our duty thoroughly and well, and personal ambition to an exalted love of country, we will not only receive the endorsement of the people, but what is far better, we will deserve their endorsement,----Champ Clark (1850-1921),  Attorney and former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.                    

                                                            ________

G. R. Kanwal

29 April 2026

 

WHO PRAYETH BEST ?

 

          WHO PRAYETH BEST ?

          Prayer is defined as the act of  communicating  with a deity or higher power to express thanks, offer praise, or make requests.     

            This word also means ---appeal, entreaty, petition, solicitation, supplication, invocation, etcetera.

            The English divine Thomas Hooker (1586-1647) said: Every good and holy desire, though it lack the form, hath in itself the substance and force of a prayer with God, who regardeth the very moanings, groans, and sighings of the heart.  

            The American clergy Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) said: Prayer covers the whole of a man’s life. There is no thought, feeling, yearning, or desire, however low, trifling, or vulgar we may deem it, which, if it affects our real interest or happiness, we may not lay before God and be sure of His sympathy. His nature is such that our often coming does not tire him. The whole burden of the whole life of every man may be rolled on to God and not weary him, though it has wearied the man.     

            The English poet laureate Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) believed : 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.

            Prayers are both limited and unlimited. You may pray for yourself, a friend, a relative, the whole mankind, some animal who is your pet, a city, a state, the whole world, even for your rival or enemy.

            However, to pray for the largest number of all kinds of  inhabitants of the world is most praiseworthy.        

            To conclude, one of the most famous quotes on prayer which  came from the English romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) said in the concluding stanzas of his long poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner:

 

            “He prayeth well , who loveth well

            Both man and bird and beast,

            He prayeth best, who loveth best

            All things both great and small;

            For the dear God who loveth us,

            He made and loveth all.

                                                ********

G.R.Kanwal

28 April 2026

 

                       

THE PRINCE BY NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI

 

          THE PRINCE BY NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI             

            “The Prince” is a 16^th-century political treatise. It is one of the most famous books on political science which enabled its author Niccolo Machiavelli  to be known as the “father of modern political science.”

            Niccolo Machiavelli was an Italian diplomat, philosopher, and political theorist . He was born on 3 May 1469 at Florence in Italy and died there on 21 June 1527.

            According to some critical comments The Prince advises leaders that is better to be feared than loved if they cannot be both. It also tells them to abandon medieval idealism and act in a new way which is currently known as the Machaiavellian way comprising deceptive, pragmatic, or cynical politics. In this modern way,  the end justifies the means. It is a pragmatic way preferring  ruthless decisions to moral ones.

            Given below are some short extracts from the book mentioned above.    

·        A prince ought to have no other aim or thought, nor select anything else for his study, than war and its rules and discipline; for this is the sole art that belongs to him who rules, and it is of such force that it not only upholds those who are born princes, but it often enables men to rise from private station to that rank.

·        A wise prince should never in peaceful times stand idle, but increase his resources with industry in such a way that they may be available to him in adversity, so that if fortune changes, it may find him prepared to resist the bows.

·        It is necessary to be a fox to discover the snares and a lion to terrify the wolves. Those who rely simply on the lion do not understand what they are about.

·        He wo seeks to deceive will always find some one who will allow himself to be deceived.

·        And you have to understand this, that a prince, especially a new one, cannot observe all those things for which men are esteemed, being often forced, in order to maintain the state, to act contrary to fidelity, friendship, humanity  and religion.

·        For this reason a prince ought to take care that he never lets anything slip from his lips that is not replete with the above-named five qualities, that he may appear to him who sees and hears him altogether merciful, faithful, humane, upright and religious.

·        Finally, everyone sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are, and those few dare not oppose themselves to the opinion of the many; who have the majesty of the state to defend them; and in the actions of all men, and especially of princes, which it is not prudent to challenge, one judges by the result.

                                                            ******

G. R. Kanwal

27 April 2026           

                                                           

              

UNHAPPINESS

 

          UNHAPPINESS     

            For most of the people the world is a place of suffering. It is not one for happiness. The English novelist Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) said in his novel The Mayor of  Casterbridge “Happiness is but an occasional episode in the general drama of pain.“

            Happiness means: joy, bliss, gaiety, gladness, delight, ecstasy, euphoria, cheerfulness, high spirits, etc.

            To be happy is to be contented with your fate, present  physical and mental health, material possessions, all-round, achievements, etc.    

            The Roman statesman, scholar, philosopher, orator, and writer  Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.) believed : A perverse temper, and a discontented , fretful disposition, wherever they prevail , render any state of life unhappy.    

            According to the Scottish essayist and historian Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) man’s unhappiness comes of his greatness; it is because there is an infinite in him, which, with all his cunning, he cannot quite bury under the finite.

            The main cause of people’s unhappiness is the continuous multiplication of  their desires. It is unfortunate that they lack contentment, and go on asking for more.  They also do not forget  their  past aberrations,  vices,  immoral deeds,  and sins for long times to come.

            The American poet and essayist Walt Whitman (1819-1892) said:

I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contained, I stand and look at them long and long.

They do not sweat and whine about their condition,

They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,

They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,

Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things.

Not one kneels to another, nor  his kind that lived thousands of years ago,

Not one is responsible or unhappy over the whole earth.   

 

Finally, the following quote by the French tragedian Pierre Corneille (1606-1684):

We never enjoy perfect happiness; our most fortunate successes are mingled with sadness; some anxieties always perplex the reality of our satisfaction.

                                                            ****

G. R. Kanwal

26^th April 2026

           

BEAUTIFUL THINGS

 

 

                                                BEAUTIFUL THINGS

            “Beautiful Things” is the title of the poem written by Elllen P. Allerton. She was born Ellen Palmer on October 17, 1835 at Centerville, New York, United States; and died 0n August 31, 1893 at Padonia, Brown County, Kansas, United States.

            By occupation, she was not only a poet but also a teacher and a farmer.

            She was married to Alpheus Burton Allerton who was also a  farmer.

            Ellen is  remembered  for two more poems : The Trail of Fortynine and Walls of Corn.

            In the poem Beautiful Things Ellen shifts her focus from physical appearance to the phrase  Summum Bonum which means “the highest good” or “supreme good”. The three words which define this Latin phrase are goodness, beauty and truth.

            For Ellen not physical charm and attraction, but the virtues of persons are the basis of  theirbeauty.

She believes in the English proverb which says: Handsome is that handsome does.

            The ethical qualities  which make people  beautiful are : honesty,  goodness, hard work , kindness, selflessness, and  pure soul, etc.

            The English poet John Keats (1595-1621) said: A thing of beauty is a joy for ever, and in one of the examples of beautiful things, he mentions:

                        All lovely tales that we have heard or read:

                        An endless fountain of immortal drink,

                        Pouring unto us from the heaven’s brink.     

 

            Ellen’s poem begins with the lines:

 

                        Beautiful faces are those that wear ---

                        I matters little if dark or fair ---

            Whole-souled honesty printed there.

           

            The complete text of the poem follows:

 

Beautiful faces are those that wear__

It matters little if dark or fair__

Whole-souled honesty printed there.

 

Beautiful eyes are those that show,

Like crystal panes where hearth-fires glow,

Beautiful thoughts that burn below,

 

Beautiful lips are those whose words

Leap from the heart, like songs of birds,

Yet whose utterance prudence girds.

 

Beautiful hands ate those that do

Work that is earnest and brave and truer

Moment by moment, the long day through.

 

Beautiful feet are those that go

On kindly ministries, to and fro__

Down lowliest ways, if God wills it so.

 

Beautiful shoulders are those that, bear

Ceaseless burdens of homely care

With patient grace, and with daily prayer.

 

Beautiful lives are those that bless__

Silent rivers of happiness,

Whose hidden fountain but few may guess.

 

Beautiful twilight, at set of sun;

Beautiful goal, with race well won;

Beautiful rest, with work well done.

 

Beautiful graves, where grasses creep,

Where brown leaves fall, where drifts lie deep;

Over worn-out hands__oh, beautiful sleep !

 

                        **********

G.R.Kanwal

25 April 2026                     

LOYALTY

 

                LOYALTY     

            Loyalty is the quality of being faithful in one’s support of something or somebody. Its synonyms  are :  Sincerity, faithfulness, fidelity, allegiance, true-heartedness, steadfastness, trustworthiness, reliability, constancy, stability, and dependability.

            A loyal person does not change at any stage.  He is firm, devoted, stable, dutiful, constant, unchanging, unwavering , unswerving, and non-treacherous.

             In Shakespeare’s plays, there are a few quotations on this subject.  They are:

(1). The loyalty well held to fools does make

Our faith mere folly; yet he that can endure

To follow with allegiance to a fall’n lord,

Does conquer him that did his master conquer,

And earns a place i’ the story. ----Antony and Cleopatra, Act 3.

 

Mark in this quotation line 3 which says: To follow with allegiance to a fallen lord.

Allegiance is another word for: loyalty, fidelity, and faithfulness.

Also recall the proverb: Prosperity makes friends, adversity tries them.

 

(2). Master, go on, and I will  follow thee

To the last gasp with truth and loyalty. ----As You Like It, Act 2.

 

(3) Longer than I prove loyal to your grace

Let me not live.----Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act 3.

 

            Endless loyalty demands  constant faithfulness to one’s friend, family, boss, political party, country, religion, all kinds of societies, associations, institutions, and organizations, he is concerned with.  

 

            Loyalists do not fall a prey to all sorts of  temptations, offers of material gains, promotions, gifts, personal  advantages, etc.  

  

            In the end, here are some famous quotations:

 

*It is better to be faithful than famous. ---Theodore Roosevelt.

*True Loyalty is proven, not proclaimed---Craig Groeschel.

*Where there is loyalty, weapons are of no use. ---Paulo Coelho.

* Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much. -----Helen Keller.

*To thine own self be true.---William Shakespeare

                                                ********

G.R.Kanwal

24 April 2026