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                                                

PUNCTUALITY

 

          PUNCTUALITY

            Punctuality is timeliness. It may also be called promptness. It is doing things at pre-arranged, pre-fixed, pre-appointed time. It is a virtue. To be unprompt and late is a vice.

            Unpunctuality has many disadvantages.The saying better late than never is not admirable. Untimeliness,  even by the fraction of a second , can be dangerous.

            Here are some famous quotes on punctuality.

1.     I could never think well of a man’s intellectual or moral character , if he was habitually unfaithful to his appointments.

2.     Habitual late comers are unreliable.

3.     Want of punctuality is a want of virtue.

4.     The English divine Richard Cecil (1748=1777) said: Appointments once made, become debts. If I have made an appointment with you, I owe you punctuality; I have no right to throw away your time, if I do my own.

5.     According to the English essayist J. F. Boyes (1811-79) Strict punctuality is, perhaps, the cheapest virtue which can give force to an otherwise utterly insignificant character.

6.     The English novelist Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) believed : Punctuality is the stern virtue of men of business, and the graceful courtesy of princes.

7.     An interesting quote on punctuality is by the French Gastronomer Brilliant-Savarin (1755-1826) . He says: The most indispensable qualification of a cook is punctuality. The same may be said of guests.

8.     Arriving late is a way of saying that your own time is more valuable than the time of the person who is waiting.

9.     Punctuality is the soul of business.

10.                        The while we keep a man waiting, he reflects on our shortcomings.---French Proverb.

                                                *******

G.R.Kanwal

1^st February 2026