Life's Lessons

Life’s lessons

I have learned that…

No matter how true and right something is, it can be persuasively argued against.

Joy given to another multiplies in yourself.

True wisdom unheeded fulfills its’ prophecy, spoken or unspoken.

Kind words go far.

Misery loves company, but so does joy.

A door of weakness overtly opened a crack, nearly always ends up wide open.

Anything too often repeated begins to fall on deaf ears.

Doing right, no matter how difficult, is always easier than dealing with the long-term results of doing its opposite wrong.

When you like a flower, you just pluck it, but when you love a flower, you water it daily.  -Buddha

The very moment one honestly decides to no longer engage in sin, forgiveness is initiated.

An item borrowed should be returned the same or better as when received.  -Paul King 

Wise men learn from experience, but super wise men learn from others' experience.  -George Cannon

Overcoming weakness is monumentally more fulfilling than hiding it.

Good hard work will always eventually become a good memory.

The more difficult honesty is, the more satisfying it will ultimately become.

The liar's punishment is, not that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else. 

                                        -George Bernard Shaw

The action that causes one to feel a need to lie, is usually the greater evil that needs to change.

It is easier to have affection for those who are obedient.

Withstanding the temptation to be unfaithful increases love to those whom one is faithful.

If you want to go fast, go alone.  If you want to go far, go together.  --African proverb

Even when you are not at fault--perhaps especially when you are not at fault, let love conquer pride.  

                                    --Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.     --Ernest Hemingway

Sorrow is not only evidence of love, it prepares us to meet joy.  --Geoff White

We are husbands best when we are not husbands first.  (God must be first.)

The person we become through our trials is enormously better than the person that comes from not having them at all.

Everyone cannot have the correct answer to all life’s questions, and though they may be polar opposites, most feel they do.

Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.  -Leo Tolstoy

You cannot wait until life isn't hard anymore before you decide to be happy.  -A dying cancer patient

It is dangerous to only walk by the light of our own understanding.

Comparison is the thief of joy.  -Uk

Leaders don't force people to follow, they invite them on the journey.

Forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn't know before you learned it.  Uk

Those with the worst hearing are those who refuse to listen.

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.  Albert Einstein

The most painful state of being is knowing the future, particularly the one you'll never have.  Soren Kierkegaard

Better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt.  Abraham Lincoln

Our failures are not what will be magnified in our lives, but whether we kept trying.

Being kind to those that are kind is an achievement, but being kind to those that are unkind, is Godly.

Those who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.  Albert Schweitzer

Sometimes all that is needed to change the world is a hug.

We should enjoy the path as much as the destination.

The overall most powerful part of the body is the mouth.

You will reap what you sow. 

 

Repentance is not when you feel guilty or cry.  Repentance is when you change. 

More valuable than schooling, hard work, or any awards we receive along the way, is reputation.

Rule your mind or it will rule you.

Regret the past only enough to not repeat it.

Gratitude is a powerful catalyst for happiness.

Gratitude is the source of all virtues.  -Uk

Remembering is the seed of gratitude.

Innovation is seldom the companion of those who seldom fail, as they probably seldom try.

Envy can rob happiness.

When the choice is between being right or being kind, choose kindness.

Fortune does not change men, it unmasks them. Suzanne Necker

Failure is success if we learn from it.  Malcolm Forbes

Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.     Albert Einstein

It's hard to hear God's voice when you've already decided what you want him to say.  Uk

The more we entertain the things of the world, the weaker is our ability to resist them.  Charlie Brown

The child that does not feel embraced by his community will burn it down to feel its warmth.  Uk

The truth has no defense against a fool determined to believe a lie.   Mark Twain

Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.  George Bernard Shaw

Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence.  Henri Ariel

Study and reason can find the truth, but only revelation can confirm it.  Dallin H. Oaks

How we live our religion is far more important than what we may say about our religion.  Robert Hales

The scriptures contain the answer to every question because they lead us to every answer.  Dallis H. Oaks

A man's character is his fate.  Uk

Lasting joy has little to do with our circumstances and everything to do with the focus of our lives.  Russell M. Nelson

The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home.  Confusius

We are not called to be successful in all things, we are called to be faithful in all things.  Mother Theresa

Gravity explains the motion of the planets, but it cannot explain who sets the planets in motion.  Isaac Newton

To be pure in heart is having zero sinister ulterior motives.

I shall not commit the fashionable stupidity of regarding everything I cannot explain as a fraud.  Carl Jung

There is an unseen world of both good and evil, and both are extremely interested in us.

No one can ever take away a witness borne to your heart and mind about what is true.  

                                        -Russell M. Nelson

A just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again; but the wicked shall fall into mischief. 

                                        -Proverbs 24:16

Christian kindness is not a substitute for Christian integrity.                          -Jack N. Gerard

The standard is clear: If something we think, see, hear or do distances us from the Holy Ghost, then we should stop thinking, seeing, hearing, or doing that thing.

Now lest it seem as though I lift myself up proclaiming myself to be a great wise man, let me say I have only learned these things through failure, sad experience, or simply in observance.    In fact I have prayed for wisdom many times because of my lack of it, and I almost never have it on the tip of my tongue.  I admire wisdom in others, which is probably why I put this together.  On that note, let me end with perhaps the greatest kind of wisdom, which is on... humility.

Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping them up.  Jesse Jackson

A great man is always willing to be little. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.  C. S. Lewis

Arrogance will rob a persons ability to become better.   Leo Tolstoy

Pride is concerned with who is right.  Humility is concerned with what is right.

True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.  Socrates

The biggest challenge after success is shutting up about it.  Criss Jami

Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real.  Thomas Merton

The best of people is the one who humbles himself the more his rank increases.  Muhammad

Perhaps wisdom is realizing how small I am, and unwise, and how far I have yet to go. Anthony Bourdain

To share your weakness is to make yourself vulnerable; to make yourself vulnerable is to show your strength.  Criss Jami

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.  Harry S. Truman

Do you wish people to think well of you? Don’t speak well of yourself.  Blaise Pascal

A true genius admits that he knows nothing.  Albert Einstein

Nobody stands taller than those willing to stand corrected.  William Safire

Stay true in the dark and humble in the spotlight.  Harold B. Lee

Even when it speaks, humility listens.  Thomas Merton

Humility is a strange thing. The minute you think you’ve got it, you’ve lost it.  E. D. Hulse

There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous.  Blaise Pascal

Humility is the most difficult of all virtues to achieve; nothing dies harder than the desire to think well of oneself.  T.S. Eliot

One of the greatest lessons in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.  Winston Churchill

Some ask if lowering one’s pride is conceding defeat. I think not. Humility is a sign of inner strength and wisdom.  Haemin Sunim

Keep your head up in failure, and your head down in success.  Jerry Seinfeld

Pride is concerned with who is right while humility is concerned with what is right. Ezra Taft Benson

True humility is staying teachable, regardless of how much you already know.  Uk

Humility brings even the least of us to look beautiful.

Pride must die in you, or nothing of heaven can live in you.  Andrew Murray

It is always the secure who are humble.  Gilbert Chesterton

A superior man is modest in his speech but exceeds in his actions.  Confusious

A man never stands as tall as when he is on his knees.  Uk

It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.  Augustine of Hippo

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not to thine own understanding.  Proverbs 3:5