Ten Quotes on Christmas

How do you feel today? Here are ten quotes on Christmas which just about capture the possible range of emotions that this holiday season could evoke in each of us. See if any of these quotes capture your mood or thought on this most awaited day in Christendom. Hope yours is not like that of Bart Simpson (at the end of this post). Once again, Merry Christmas, folks!

The "first Christmas" was a simple time of beauty and wonder. The birth of Christ was less about celebration than it was about family. Though many today may grow tired of the commercialization of Christmas, in reality it has opened the door for Christ to once again become the focal point of the season, and for family, especially children, to be at the heart of the celebration. -Ace Collins

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Merry Christmas! ... What's Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, and not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in 'em through a round dozen of months presented against you? If I would work my will ... every idiot who goes about with "Merry Christmas," on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. -Charles Dickens

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When we recall Christmas past, we usually find that the simplest things -- not the great occasions -- give off the greatest glow of happiness. -Bob Hope

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The one thing women don't want to find in their stockings on Christmas morning is their husband. -Joan Rivers

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Christmas is a season of such infinite labour, as well as expense in the shopping and present-making line, that almost every woman I know is good for nothing in purse and person for a month afterwards, done up physically, and broken down financially. -Fanny Kemble

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Christmas is not a time or a season but a state of mind. To cherish peace and good will, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. If we think on these things, there will be born in us a Savior and over us will shine a star sending its gleam of hope to the world. -Calvin Coolidge

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For many people, Christmas is about the grand gesture -- spending days and nights in frenzied cooking and decorating, enduring crowds to buy piles of gifts, and attending to a calendar chock-full of obligations. The funny thing is, at the end of all the huzzah and hurrah, many of us are exhausted rather than exhilarated. -Donata Maggipinto

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There's nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child. -Erma Bombeck

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Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won't make it 'white'. -Bing Crosby

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Aren't we forgetting the true meaning of Christmas? You know… the birth of Santa. -Bart Simpson

(Thanks to www.sxc.hu for the royalty-free photo shown above).

A Very Merry Christmas to All!

I have not forgotten this blog. It's just that I have been terribly busy with a project lately. But then, no matter busy I am, I'd like to take this opportunity to greet one and all a very Merry Christmas!

Ten Quotes on Justice

I had the urge yesterday to comment (in my, yes, dog blog) on two celebrated local cases where, in my view, the executive branch of government might gain political mileage, but at the expense of an already weakened justice system, a co-equal branch in the democratic triad. If my analysis is correct, where is the wisdom in all that?

As is my wont when I needed to take a position on issues, I first consult the wisdom of the ages, which can be found in famous quotes, to test if my layman's thoughts resonate with those of others who have gone before. See what I came up with:

"Justice is the means by which established injustices are sanctioned." -ANATOLE FRANCE

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"Injustice alone can shake down the pillars of the skies, and restore the reign of Chaos and Night." -HORACE MANN

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"The most reasonable man always manages, when he pulls the trigger, to become a dispenser of justice." -JEAN GENET

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"Justice will only exist where those not affected by injustice are filled with the same amount of indignation as those offended." -PLATO

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"When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love. Where evil men would seek to perpetuate an unjust status quo, good men must seek to bring into being a real order of justice." -MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

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"It is not the business of the law to make anyone good or reverent or moral or clean or upright." -MURRAY ROTHBARD

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"One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty." -MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

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"Legal plunder has two roots: One, as we have just seen, is in human selfishness; the other is in false philanthropy." -FREDERIC BASTIAT

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"What those people who ask for equality have in mind is always an increase in their own power to consume." -LUDWIG VON MISES

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"Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." -MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

(Thanks to Stockxpert.com for the use of the royalty-free photo shown above)

Ten Quotes from John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy became the U.S. president when I was graduating from Grade-VI in a public school in my hometown. It was my father who planted him in my consciousness after he came back the following year from a government scholarship in the States. He regaled us with his first-hand account of the palpable tension in America during the Cuban Missile Crisis that tested Kennedy's mettle as a young president of a world superpower. That made a lasting imprint on my impressionable mind, hence my choice for these quotes:

"A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people."

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As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.

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"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."

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"Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men."

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"Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction."

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"Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names."

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"Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners, and necessity has made us allies. Those whom God has so joined together, let no man put asunder."

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"History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside."

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"I look forward to a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose."

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"I just received the following wire from my generous Daddy; Dear Jack, Don't buy a single vote more than is necessary. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for a landslide."

(Many thanks to obits.eons.com for the use of the photo shown above)

Ten Quotes on Destiny

While researching for my next post in my other blog, I was looking out for a quotation that would capture the essence of what I wanted to muse about the life path of incumbent U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

You see, Mr. Bernanke was just a child of six or seven when the Great Depression struck in the 1930s. His experience during that period apparently left a lasting influence on the young Bernanke who once asked his maternal grandmother why many children in the neighborhood went to school either barefoot or in tattered shoes.

It's an anecdote that leads me to the inevitable word: Destiny. Let me share with you these quotes that I stumbled upon:

"There is no such thing as chance; and what seem to us merest accident springs from the deepest source of destiny." -Johann Friedrich Von Schiller

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Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny." -Tyron Edwards

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"Upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all." -Alexander the Great

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"We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out." -Ray Bradbury

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"A consistent soul believes in destiny, a capricious one in chance." -Benjamin Disraeli

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"The destiny of any nation at any given time depends on the opinion of its young people, those under twenty-five." -Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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"And the high destiny of the individual is to serve rather than to rule, or to impose himself in any other way." -Albert Einstein

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"Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

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"Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid." -Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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"Even when you think you have your life all mapped out, things happen that shape your destiny in ways you might never have imagined." -Deepak Chopra

(The royalty-free photo shown above courtesy of www.sxc.hu)

Ten Quotes from Sun Tzu's " The Art of War"

I thought about Sun Tzu after the failed rebellion of Philippine Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, a PMAyer and former Navy officer, last Thursday, November 29, 2007. This was his second attempt to overthrow President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA). He may need to go back to the teachings of Sun Tzu in "The Art of War" if he will have a third chance, which is now a very big IF.

"We cannot enter into alliances until we are acquainted with the designs of our neighbors."

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"The general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose."

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"Though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays."

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"All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him."

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"He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight. He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces. He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks. He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared. He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign."

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"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."

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"Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated."

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"In all fighting, the direct method may be used for joining battle, but indirect methods will be needed in order to secure victory. In battle, there are not more than two methods of attack - the direct and the indirect; yet these two in combination give rise to an endless series of maneuvers. The direct and the indirect lead on to each other in turn. It is like moving in a circle - you never come to an end. Who can exhaust the possibilities of their combination?"

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"The clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy, but does not allow the enemy's will to be imposed on him."

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"In making tactical dispositions, the highest pitch you can attain is to conceal them."

(Thanks to www.geocities.com/Athens for the use of the photo shown above)