READ AND REMEMBER
Under this heading, readers will find
some precious thoughts about life and its ups and downs. It does not matter who
said them. What matters is their utility in making life as happy and successful
as possible.
1.Man courts happiness in a thousand shapes;
and the faster he follows it the swifter it flies from him. Almost everything
promiseth happiness to us at a distance, but when we come nearer, either we
fail short of it, or it falls short of our expectation; and it is hard to say
which of these is the greatest
disappointment. Our hopes are usually bigger than the enjoyment can satisfy;
and an evil long feared , besides that
it may never come, is many times more painful and troublesome than the evil
itself when it comes.
The
author of this quotation is John Tillotson the English divine and Archbishop of
Canterbury. He was born in October 1630 and passed away on 22 November 1694. He
delivered fiftyfour sermons and discourses on several occasions. These are
available together with the Rule of Faith.
2. It seems
to me that the coming of love is like the coming of spring – the date is not to
be reckoned by the calendar . It may be slow and gradual; it may be quick and
sudden. But in the morning, when we wake and recognize a change in the world
without, verdure on the trees, blossoms on the sward, warmth in the sunshine,
music in the air, we say spring has come.
These
are the views of the English novelist Edward George Bulwer-Lytton . He was born
on 25 May1803 and expired on 18 Jan 1873.
He was a versatile writer who wrote many novels, plays, poems, pamphlets, all
of which reflected the contemporary changes in tastes, fashions and thoughts.
3. In
contemplation of created things, by steps we may ascend to God.
These are the words of the English
poet John Milton. He was born on 9 December 1608 and left this world on 8
November 1674. He was also Secretary For Tongues to the Commonwealth Council of
State. He had become blind before he
composed his major works. His epic poem Paradise Lost was written in 1667 .
Milton’s main theme in poetry is the justification of ways of God to man.
4. Kill
not your hearts with excess of eating and drinking.
This advice against gluttony is found
in the ethical code of almost every religion. Buddhism includes it in its eightfold path.
The Persian poet Sheikh Saadi Shirazi (1210-1291/92) who followed Islam said:
He who is a slave to his belly seldom worships God.
5. The
golden moments in the stream of life rush past us, and we are nothing but sand;
the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone,
This quote belongs to the English
novelist and poet George Eliot who was born on 22 November 1819 and passed away
on 22 December 1880. She is known for developing the method of psychological analysis
in her novels. Her major works are: Adam Bede (1858), The Mill on the Floss (1860).
Silas Marner (1861) and Middlemarch (1871).
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G.R.Kanwal
17 July 2025
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