WORDS TO LIVE BY

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The Winds of Fate

One ship drives east and another drives west,
While the self-same breezes blow;
It's the set of the sails and not the gales,
That bids them where to go.

Like the winds of the seas are the ways of the fates,
As we voyage through life;
It's the set of the soul that decides the goal,
And not the storms or the strife.

~Ella Wheeler Wilcox~

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This is the beginning of a new day.
You have been given this day
To use as you will.
You can waste it,
Or use it for good.
What you do today is important,
because you are exchanging
A day of your life for it.
When tomorrow comes,
this day will be gone forever.
In it's place is something
That you have left behind.
Let it be something good.
~ Author Unknown ~

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The clock of life is wound but once,
And no man has the power
To tell just when the hands will stop,
At late or early hour.

To lose one's wealth is sad indeed,
To lose one's health is more;
To lose one's soul is such a loss
That no man can restore.

The present only is our own,
So Live, Love, toil with a will --
Place no faith in 'Tomorrow' --
For the clock may then be still.

Robert H. Smith
©1932-1982

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Small Steps

Do not despair that you cannot change
The world in a day or two---
Instead, just give your very best
In the little things you do.
Then you will find, in days to come,
When taken all together,
These little steps did change and make
The world a little better.
Thomas C. Gallagher

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Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints in the sands of time.
.......H.W.Wadsworth

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To laugh often and much;
to win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;
to earn the appreciation of honest critics
and to endure the betrayal of false friends;
to appreciate beauty;
to find the best in others;
to leave the world a bit better
whether by a healthy child,
a garden patch
or a redeemed social condition;
to know even one life has breathed
easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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LORD, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy;
Oh, Divine Master, grant
That I may not so much seek
To be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born
To eternal life.
.....St. Francis of Assisi

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Lord, Teach me to be generous.
Teach me to serve you as you deserve;
To give, and not to count the cost;
To fight, and not to heed the wounds;
To toil, and not to look for rest;
To labor, and not to ask for reward,
Save that of knowing I am doing Your will.
St. Ignatius Loyola
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THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER
Teach me to feel another's woe,
To hide the faults I see;
That mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me.
Alexander Pope
(1688-1744)

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Within this ample volume lies
The mystery of mysteries:
Happiest they of human race
To whom their God has given grace,
To read, to fear, to hope, to pray,
To lift the latch, to force the way;
And better had they ne'er been born
That read to doubt, or read to scorn.
Sir Walter Scott
(1771-1832)

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I've tried in vain a thousand ways,
My fears to quell, my hopes to raise,
And all I need, the Bible says,
Is Jesus.
My soul is night; my heart is steel.
I cannot see; I cannot feel.
For light, for life, I must appeal
To Jesus.
He died; He lives; He reigns; He pleads.
There is love in all His words and deeds.
All, all a guilty sinner needs
Is Jesus.
Though some will mock, and some will blame;
In spite of fear, in spite of shame,
I'll go to Him because His name
Is Jesus.
(author unknown)
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