THOUGHTS

 

                THOUGHTS

                                    A thought is something that one thinks of or remembers. Collectively thoughts mean ideas, opinions, mental images, general beliefs, etc., that we have in our minds.

            Great thoughts are such ideas as are deep, noble, inspiring, full of wisdom, frequently helpful in day- to -day life, essence of a writer’s,  poet’s, philosopher’s, discoverer’s,  inventor’s and a statesman’s extraordinary  personal experience.

            We find great ideas in fiction, literature, and many other books on different subjects including those on religion and science.

            Indian physicist C. V. Raman (1888-1970), winner of Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930 expressed a great idea when he said in an essay: Water Is The Elixir Of Life.”

                                    Give below are some great ideas attributed to great thinkers.

1.     If man only keeps the truth before his eyes in all its purity, is not untruthful to himself, then he will find a way to act in the best manner according to his strength.--------Famous Russian author Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910). He is famous for his two epic masterworks War and Peace and Anna Karenina.

2.     Half the misery of human life might be extinguished by mutual offices of compassion, benevolence, and humanity. -----British writer and politician Joseph Addison (1672-1719).

3.     The things that destroy us are injustice, insolence, and foolish thoughts; and the things which save us are justice, self-command, and true thought, which things dwell in the loving powers of god.-----Greek philosopher Plato (427 B.C.—347 B.C.).

4.     Be not slack to seek wisdom when thou art young, nor weary in the search when thou art grown old ---for no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul.---Ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus (341 BC—270 BC).

 

5.No man can live happily who regards himself alone, who turns everything to his own advantage. Thou must live for another if thou wishest to live for thyself.  ----A stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist of Ancient Rome,  Seneca the Younger, (Born?----Died 65, Rome, Italy ).

                                                                ______

PUNCHLINE: Content is wealth, the riches of the mind.

                                                    *****

G. R. Kanwal

28 July 2026

 

SOME CHARACTER-BUILDING QUOATION

 

          SOME CHARACTER-BUILDING QUOATION

            A quotation is defined as a group of words or short piece of writing taken from a book, play, speech, etc. and repeated because it is interesting or useful.

            Some quotations are character-building because they are replete with proven wisdom . They indicate what is good or bad ; what should be remembered or  forgotten.  They build our conduct and character, and protect us from many pitfalls.

            Here are some famous quotations which will never become ineffective or irrelevant.

1.     Excess of everything is bad.

2.     Prevention is better than cure.

3.     Truth fears no examination.

4.     As you sow, so shall you reap.

5.     It takes two to make a quarrel.

6.      Health is wealth.

7.     Avarice is the vice of declining years.

8.     Handsome is that handsome does.

9.     A thing of beauty is a joy forever.

10.                         A drowning man catches at a straw.

11.                          A lie has no legs to stand upon.

12.                         Fear is the black godmother of all evils

13.                         Fidelity is the sister of justice.

14.                         Two heads are better than one.

15.                         Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.

16.                        God helps those who help themselves.

17.                         Might is right.

18.                         Home is where the heart is.

19.                         Honesty is the best policy.

20.                         It is no use locking the stable when the horse has been stolen.

21.                         Water is the best drink for a gentleman.

22.                         The best sauce for food is hunger.

23.                         Go to the aunt, thou sluggard, consider her way, and be wise.

24.                         Lost time is never gained again.

25.                         Where ignorance is bliss. It is folly to be wise.

                                                _______

PUNCHLINE:  We don’t die, we kill ourselves.

                                                *******

G.R.Kanwal

27 July 2026

 

SOME FAMOUS THOUGHTS ON HABITS

 

                SOME FAMOUS THOUGHTS ON HABITS

            A habit is defined as : a routine behavior repeated regularly, performed almost automatically, and learned through frequent practice.

            A habit is also known as tendency propensity, predisposition, proclivity, penchant, leaning, bent, inclination, custom, practice, quirk, disposition, temper, temperament, nature, character, make-up, constitution, frame of mind.

            Good habits are desirable. They save time and cultivate perfection. They are called healthy habits because they prevent unnecessary trouble. For example, walking, reading holy books, visiting sacred places, fasting now and then, drinking water frequently, avoiding bad company, rising early, sleeping early, etc. are good habits.

            Smoking, drinking, gambling, telling lies, laziness, calling bad names, losing temper, gluttony, nail-biting, impulsiveness, neglecting health, etc. are bad habits.

            Here are a few famous thoughts on habits:

1.     Good habits are the best magistrates. 2. Habit is the deepest law of human nature. 3. The chains of habit are generally too small to be felt until they are too strong to be broken. 4. Habits are to the soul what the veins and arteries are to the blood. 5. Habit, if not resisted, soon becomes necessity. 6. Habit is ten times nature. 7. All of us are more or less slaves to habits. 7. Habit, if wisely and skillfully formed, becomes truly a second nature. 8. If you sow an act, you reap a habit; if you sow a habit, you reap a character; and if you sow a character, you reap a destiny. 9. Habits work more constantly and with greater force than reason. 10.  Long customs are not easily broken; he that attempts to change the course of his own life very often labours in vain

                 Finally: This  very famous quote: “First we make our habits, then our habits make us.”---American major general and engineer Charles C. Noble (1916-2003).  

                                                ----

PUNCHLINE: Habits are good servants, but bad masters.

                                                ******

G.R.Kanwal

26 July 2026           

 

 

 

 

PUNISHMENT

 

PUNISHMENT

            To punish is to make somebody suffer because he has broken the law or done something wrong and punishment is an act or a way of punishing .

            Some synonyms of punishment are: penalty, castigation, retribution, and chastisement.

            You can punish a culprit by beating, slapping, caning, whipping, flogging, lashing, or caning, etc.

            Governments punish criminals by imprisoning them or imposing fine or using  both imprisonment and fine.  

            Punishment normally does not achieve its purpose; compassion does.

            Not long ago children were punished by their parents and teachers very frequently. They acted on the proverb “Spare the rod, and spoil the child.” Now this proverb is almost dead. Corporal punishment in schools is forbidden.           Here are some famous quotes on punishment:

*The whole of life and experience goes to show, that right or wrong doing, whether as to the physical or the spiritual nature, is sure in the end to meet its appropriate reward or punishment. Penalties may be delayed, but they are sure to come. ----American clergyman H.W. Beecher (1813-1887).

  **Punishment is lame, but it comes.--- English divine and poet George  Herbert (1593-1633).

***Don’t let us rejoice in punishment, even when the hand of God alone inflicts it. The best of us are but poor wretches just saved from shipwreck. Can we feel anything but awe and pity when we see fellow-passenger swallowed by the waves? ---English novelist and poet George Eliot (1819-1880).

****The object of punishment is threefold: for just retribution; for the protection of society; for the reformation of the offender. ---American theologian Tyron Edwards (1809-1894).

*****There is no greater punishment than that of being abandoned to one’s self.—French theologian Pasquier Quesnel (1634-1719).

                                                -------

PUNCHLINE: If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed. ----Theoretical physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955).

                                                ******

G. R. Kanwal

25 July 2026

 

TWO POEMS ABOUT GOD

 

                TWO POEMS ABOUT GOD

                        Given below are two poems, originally called songs. They are included in a book titled Gitanjali (Song Offerings) written by the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, for its English translation.

                        Tagore who was a British Indian poet, author, playwright, musician, composer, philosopher, social reformer, painter and one of the foremost figures of the Bengal Renaissance, was born on 7 May 1861 at Jorasnko and passed away on 7 August 1941 at Jorasanko Thakurbari, Kolkata. He was the son of Debendranath Tagore, a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, a new religious sect in the nineteenth century.

                        Tagore is most famous for his Gitanjali (1910), novels like Gora(1910), and Ghare-Baire (1916) concerning social and political identity. Among his short stories Kabuliwala is very popular.

                        Tagore also composed more than 2,2000 songs blending classical and folk traditions.

                        He authored two National Anthems “Jana Gana Mana” and “Amar Sonar Bangla”.

                        Tagore believed in spiritual humanism, universal brotherhood, and harmony with nature.  In Gitanjali he addresses God as an ordinary worker in quite a few songs.

                        The two poems which are given below are about God’s active presence among the poorest and ordinary human beings who are engaged in creative labour.  

FIRST POEM: Here is thy footstool and there rest thy feet where live the poorest, and lowliest, and lost.    

                        When I try to bow to thee, my obeisance cannot reach down to the depth where thy feet rest among the poorest, and lowliest, and lost.

                        Pride can never approach to where thou walkest in the clothes of the humble among the poorest, and lowliest, and lost.

                        My heart can never find its way to where thou keepest company with companionless among the poorest, the lowliest, and the lost.

                                    …………….

SECOND POEM: Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads ! Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut?  Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee!

                        He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and where the path-maker is breaking stones. He is with them in sun and in shower, and his garment is covered with dust. Put off thy holy mantle and even like him come down on the dusty soil !

                        Deliverance ? Where is the deliverance to be found? Our master himself has joyfully taken upon him the bonds of creation; he is bound with us all for ever.

                        Come out of thy meditations and leave aside thy flowers and incense ! What harm is there if thy clothes become tattered and stained ? Meet him and stand by him in toil and in sweat of thy brow.

                                                            *********

G.R.Kanwal

24 July 2026   

 

                                               

 

 

TEN QUOTES ON DEMOCRACY

 

          TEN QUOTES ON DEMOCRACY

            “Democracy” is defined as a system of government in which all the people of a country can vote to elect their representatives .             

1.     The 16h U. S. President Abraham Lincoln (189-1865) defined democracy as “government of the people, by the people, for the people”.

            He also laid out his philosophical core of democracy in an 1858 fragment. It went like this:

                        “As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.”           

Here are more definitions by other great thinkers:

2.     The efforts of government alone will never be enough. In the end, the people must choose and the people must help themselves. ----John F. Kennedy Thirtyfifth President of the United States (1917-1963)

3.     No democracy can exist for long in the midst of want and poverty and inequality.---Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister (1889-1964).

4.     The ultimate failures of dictatorships cost humanity far more than any temporary failures of democracy,----Franklin D. Roosevelt Thirty-second president of the United States (1882-1945).

5.     People shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.----Alan Moore, English author, born 18 November 1953.

6.     The love of democracy is that of equality.---French jurist, historian, and political philosopher Charles Louis de Secondat Montesquieu(1689-1755).

7.     Your little child is your only true democrat,---Mrs Hrriet Beecher, American author (1811-1896).

8.     If there were a people consisting of gods, they would be governed democratically; so perfect a government is not suitable to men.---Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Genevan philosopher and writer (1712-1778).

9.     Democracy will itself accomplish the salutary universal change from the delusive to the real, and make a new blessed world of use bye and bye,----Thomas Carlyle, Scottish essayist and historian(1795-1881).

10.             The progress of democracy seems irresistible, because it is the most uniform, the most ancient, and the most permanent tendency which is to be found in history.----Alexis Charles Henri Clerel, comte de Tocqueville, French diplomat, philosopher and historian (1805-1859).

                                                      ________

PUNCHLINE: The devil was the first democrat.---English poet , Lord Byron (1788-1824).

                                                                  ********

G.R.Kanwal

23 July 2026

SOME THOUGHTS ON LOVE

 

                SOME THOUGHTS ON LOVE

            “Love” is briefly defined as: a strong feeling of deep affection for somebody. A bit longer definition encompasses : deep affection, care, respect, and a commitment to another person’s well-being, often involving compassion, loyalty, and a willingness to sacrifice for his/her happiness.

            True love must be sincere, cordial, unselfish, loyal, faithful, empathetic, compassionate, trust-worthy, and life-long.

              Some synonyms of love are:

            Affection, fondness, care, concern, attachment, regard, warmth, intimacy, devotion, adoration, passion, yearning, infatuation, and adulation.

                The English romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) began  his poem entitled Love with the following words:

                   All thoughts, all passions, all delights,

                   Whatever stirs this mortal frame.

                    All are but ministers of Love,

                    And feed his sacred flame.             

                

                  For all human beings love is a necessity, not a luxury.

               

                Another English poet Alfred Lord Tennyson(1809-1892) said:

It is better to have loved and lost, than not to love at all.  

 

            According to the French author Victor Hugo (1802-1885): Life is a flower of which love is the honey. 

 

              The English poet and writer John Dryden (1631-1700)  had this to say:

 

            Love reckons hours for months, and days for years, and every little absence is an age.

 

            The English poet and cultural critic Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) considered mutual loyalty and faithfulness the soul of love.

            Here is an extract from one of his poems:

           

                        Ah, love, let us be true

                        To one another! For the world, which seems

                        To lie before us like a land of dreams,

                        So various, so beautiful , so new,

                        Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

                        Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help, nor pains;

                        And we are here as on a darkling plain

                        Swept with confused alarms of struggle and fight,

                        Where ignorant armies clash by night.

                                                ________

PUNCHLINE: Life without love is like a body without soul.   

                                   

                                                            ********

G.R.Kanwal

22 July 2026