The spirit of America is scarred and scorched, but the signs of resistance and recovery are everywhere … In the process of making the American spirit, alloys of virtue and memory, heroism and hardship, are continually added to the raw materials of the past and fused in the forge of history.

—Cokie and Steven R. Roberts, “Souls of Steel”

 

Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive.

––C. S. Lewis

Compassion is not at all weak. It is the strength that arises out of seeing the true nature of suffering in the world. Compassion allows us to bear witness to that suffering, whether it is in ourselves or others, without fear; it allows us to name injustice without hesitation, and to act strongly, with all the skill at our disposal. To develop this mind state of compassion… is to learn to live, as the Buddha put it, with sympathy for all living beings, without exception.

––Sharon Salzberg

Problems cannot be solved at the same level of consciousness that created them.

––Albert Einstein

You must live with people to know their problems, and live with God in order to solve them. ––P.T. Forsyth

We may look up to armies for our defense, but virtue is our best security. It is not possible that any state should long remain free, where virtue is not supremely honored.

 ––Samuel Adams

Child of God, therefore, children of God, therefore brothers. All wars are civil wars.

 ––Eric Gill

Religious experiences, which are as real as life to some, may be incomprehensible to others.

––William O. Douglas, opinion, United States v. Ballard, 1944.

In the matter of religion, people eagerly fasten their eyes on the difference between their own creed and yours; whilst the charm of the study is in finding the agreements and identities in all the religions of humanity.

––Ralph Waldo Emerson

In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other nonexaminers, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.                           ––Mark Twain

God is like a mirror. The mirror never changes, but everybody who looks at it sees something different.

––Rabbi Harold Kushner

Instead of being at the mercy of wild beasts, earthquakes, landslides, and inundations, modern man is battered by the elemental forces of his own psyche. This is the World Power that vastly exceeds all other powers on earth. The Age of Enlightenment, which stripped nature and human institutions of gods, overlooked the God of Terror who dwells in the human soul.        ––Carl Jung

I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive goodwill will proclaim the rule of the land.

––Martin Luther King, Jr

 (All are invited to submit quotations for inclusion here. They may be sent to Gleanings, c/o The Newtown Bee, 5 Church Hill Road, Newtown, CT 06470 or emailed to editor@thebee.com.)