Quote of the Day: 23 December 2024 #QotD

“You can’t keep digging up the corpse of who you used to be, Wayne. You can’t keep toting it around. Let him stay buried. Consider who you are, not who you left behind.” -Waxillium Ladrian, The Lost Metal
[There's not much to add to this. It is sufficient on its own and doesn't need any commentary from me.]

Quote of the Day: 22 December 2024 #QotD

“I bear witness of the sacred work of teaching Heavenly Father’s children the simple doctrine of Jesus Christ, which allows us to be spiritually cleansed and ultimately be welcomed into God’s presence, to live with Him and His Son in glory forever in families.” -Henry B. Eyring

Quote of the Day: 21 December 2024 #QotD

“And most generally there is something about everything that you can be glad about, if you keep hunting long enough to find it.” -Pollyanna Whittier, Pollyanna
[Depending on the framing, it can sound a bit cynical, though.]

Quote of the Day: 20 December 2024 #QotD

“Sometimes you owed it to yourself to do what was necessary, not what was easy.” -Lukan Gardova (thought), The Silverblood Promise
[Those 'sometimes' end up being an awful lot of the time. Like, almost all the time.]

Quote of the Day: 19 December 2024 #QotD

“[T]here is no fixed or predestined total amount of income or wealth to be shared. If some people are creating more wealth than they are receiving as income, then they are not making other people poorer. But if they are creating products or services that are worth less than the income they receive, then equally clearly they are making other people poorer.” -Thomas Sowell
[The error so many fall into of thinking that there is a fixed amount of wealth is pervasive. I used to believe the same, when I was a child. I have since learned the difference between value, wealth, and money. But I don't know that I could convince someone else of the things I have come to realize about them.]

Quote of the Day: 18 December 2024 #QotD

“When a child is learning a musical instrument he is learning long-term perseverance.” -Sharlene Habermeyer
[There is no easy way to get to proficiency on an instrument. You have to put in the time to develop technique and other skills. And that only matters if you have sufficient instruction to help you past plateaus, roadblocks, and discouragement.]

Quote of the Day: 17 December 2024 #QotD

“Because an insight is new doesn’t mean it’ll be useful, or even good news.” -Scott Meyer
[Sometimes, it means just the opposite. There are traditions about things for a reason. We disregard them at our peril.]

Quote of the Day: 16 December 2024 #QotD

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” -G. K. Chesterton
[Too true. I, a Christain myself, probably fall prey to this more than I realize. I can only hope I come closer and closer to the ideal as I seek to follow the Saviour.]

Quote of the Day: 15 December 2024 #QotD

“Happiness and joy in this life and the next are always linked with the gospel of Jesus Christ.” -Gary E. Stevenson

Quote of the Day: 14 December 2024 #QotD

“Yeah, well. Sometimes, when I get bored, I stop and think.” -Harry Dresden, Skin Game
[A dangerous pastime for a man of little intellect, or one prone to rumination.]

Quote of the Day: 13 December 2024 #QotD

“The customer is always right, even when they are being absurd.” -Tom Stranger, A murder of Manatees
[The original quote is so often misunderstood to mean that whatever the customer wants is correct, when what it really means is that the customers underlying desires are valid, and the employees should be empowered to find a way to meet those desires to produce additional profit.]

Quote of the Day: 12 December 2024 #QotD

“It is impossible to manufacture or imitate love.” -Horace Slughorn, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
[Something to keep in mind, all year, but this time of year in particular.]

Quote of the Day: 11 December 2024 #QotD

“[L]ike fire and fusion, government is a dangerous servant and a terrible master.” -Bernardo de la Paz, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
[The power is so intoxicating that it is so tremendously tempting to seize it for yourself instead of diminishing the power of government so it isn't a threat to the individual.]

Quote of the Day: 10 December 2024 #QotD

“Loneliness didn’t tell you what you had lost, only that something was missing.” -Tom Clancy
[Loneliness is only an indication of an underlying need. It's tremendously painful, but like physical pain, it's there to signal the attention that is required.]

Quote of the Day: 9 December 2024 #QotD

“You wouldn’t be normal if you were never afraid. Even the bravest men experience fear.” -Major Major, Catch-22
[The fear is just the emotion. How you respond to that fear is what determines if you're acting rationally and reasonably or not.]

Quote of the Day: 8 December 2024 #QotD

“Christ’s charity—_evident in complete loyalty to divine will_—persisted and continues to persist, not just through the easy and comfortable days but especially through the darkest and most difficult ones.” -Jeffrey R. Holland

Quote of the Day: 7 December 2024 #QotD

“Why ever did I wake up!” -Bombur, The Hobbit
[It's Saturday. I'm probably going to take a nap.]

Quote of the Day: 6 December 2024 #QotD

“Story of our species. Everybody knows it’s coming, but not so soon.” -Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park
[We are continually surprised by things we thoroughly expect to happen. It's so common we shouldn't be surprised, yet we are.]

Quote of the Day: 5 December 2024 #QotD

“[A]n ocean of knowledge is apt to drown you long before it educates you.” -Mark Lawrence
[Regardless of your skill in swimming through that knowledge, too. You will simply be overwhelmed by the vastness of that ocean.]

Quote of the Day: 4 December 2024 #QotD

“The thing about being embarrassed is that sooner or later you aren’t, but you remember that you were.” -Blodwen Rhysson, Raising Steam
[And hopefully that is enough to help you remember and make changes to your character so that you won't be embarrassed in the same way again.]

Quote of the Day: 3 December 2024 #QotD

“There is no sense in talking of ‘becoming better’ if better means simply ‘what we are becoming’—it is like congratulating yourself on reaching your destination and defining destination as ‘the place you have reached’.” -C. S. Lewis
[There has to be a definite and predetermined goal if we are to know whether we are becoming better or not. Otherwise, it is just an exercise in self-satisfaction.]

Quote of the Day: 2 December 2024 #QotD

“Every one sees what you seem, but few know what you are[.]” -Niccolo Machiavelli
[Everyone wears something of a mask. Whether that mask closely resembles the face beneath or not is up to the individual. But no one is entirely transparent with who they are to the world, even if only unintentionally.]

Quote of the Day: 1 December 2024 #QotD

“Ancient voices from the dust plead with us today to learn this everlasting lesson: prosperity, possessions, and ease constitute a potent mixture that can lead even the righteous to drink the spiritual poison of pride.” -David A. Bednar

Quote of the Day: 30 November 2024 #QotD

“Once in a while you have to be a little reckless; that’s a skill I learned somewhere.” -Lucy Carlyle, The Creeping Shadow
[Knowing when those times are gets to be quite difficult, though. And when you get it wrong ... Ouch!]

Quote of the Day: 29 November 2024 #QotD

“An incompetent traitor is no danger. It is rather the capable men who must be watched.” -Ammel Brodrig, Foundation and Empire
[Something worth keeping in mind. Competence is a desirable trait when it is used to your benefit, and an undesirable one when it goes against your interests.]

Quote of the Day: 28 November 2024 #QotD

“My gratitude journal is not a luxury that I attend to only when it is convenient or when I have time. It is a necessity and a reminder of how much I have, even in moments when I feel as though I have lost everything.” -Brittany Hunter
[Happy Thanksgiving!]

Quote of the Day: 27 November 2024 #QotD

“Our faith is that this is all part of some plan. It’s not about everything happening the way we want—but trusting that it is happening the way someone wants.” -Contemplation, The Sunlit Man
[An excellent summation of faith. My personal faith puts that plan in the hands of a benevolent creator who loves us. But others may have more sinister interpretations of things.]

Quote of the Day: 26 November 2024 #QotD

“Just breathing isn’t living.” -Pollyanna Whittier, Pollyanna
[You've got to find and do something that ignites your passion. Otherwise, you may as well not be living.]

Quote of the Day: 25 November 2024 #QotD

“I dunno, it seems like once people grow up, they have no idea what’s cool.” -Calvin, Calvin and Hobbes
[Of necessity. You can't mature and hold on to the culture of youth, and the youth can't develop their independence without some way of distinguishing themselves from the older generation.]

Quote of the Day: 24 November 2024 #QotD

“Holiness to the Lord makes daily living sacred. It draws us closer and happier to the Lord and each other and prepares us to live with God our Father, Jesus Christ, and our loved ones.” -Gerrit W. Gong

Quote of the Day: 23 November 2024 #QotD

“Not all differences between races are due to race—either in the sense of genetics or in the sense of racial discrimination.” -Thomas Sowell
[But there's too much money being made from convincing people of the opposite. So, it will persist despite the flaws.]

Quote of the Day: 22 November 2024 #QotD

“This affair advances in a very strange manner.” -Hercule Poirot, Murder on the Orient Express
[But don't the interesting ones always proceed in a strange manner? Otherwise, wehre would the interst be?]

Quote of the Day: 21 November 2024 #QotD

“Well, don’t ask me a lot of fool questions if you don’t like the answers.” -Jake Barnes, The Sun Also Rises
[There's some sense in that. Some. But how can you know if you'll like the answers if you don't ask the questions?]

Quote of the Day: 20 November 2024 #QotD

“In everything on this earth that is worth doing, there is a stage when no one would do it, except for necessity or honor.” -G. K. Chesterton
[So, we ought to be thankful for those who decided to proceed regardless of the personal consequences and risks.]

Quote of the Day: 19 November 2024 #QotD

“[Y]ou can’t go around changing your definition of right and wrong (or smart and stupid) just because doing the wrong thing happens to be really convenient.” -Harry Dresden, Cold Days
[But isn't always just so tempting? But you have to resist that temptation in order to maintain your integrity and character.]

Quote of the Day: 18 November 2024 #QotD

“Now you understand why the Framers put the Second Amendment in there. It is the kill switch on the Republic, and everyone with a clue prays we never have to use it.” -Larry Correia
[Amen. I don't want that. I never want that. But there are things I want even less.]

Quote of the Day: 17 November 2024 #QotD

“During our sojourn in mortality, we often wrestle with what we think we know, what we think is best, and what we assume works for us, as opposed to comprehending what Heavenly Father actually knows, what is eternally best, and what absolutely works for children within His plan.” -Ulisses Soares

Quote of the Day: 16 November 2024 #QotD

“Each of us believes that what he has to say is much more important than anything the other might have to contribute!” -Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
[Isn't it always the way? Self-absorption is a relationship killer.]

Quote of the Day: 15 November 2024 #QotD

“There is no such thing as luck; there is only adequate or inadequate preparation to cope with a statistical universe.” -Samuel C. Russell, Have Space Suit – Will Travel
[Ehh, I've got to think probabilities can still throw things at you that you're not going to be adequately prepared for. But people tend to ascribe more failures to luck than is generally warranted.]

Quote of the Day: 14 November 2024 #QotD

“Life had to have a purpose, and one such purpose was the service of others.” -Tom Clancy
[This is often a good way to find joy in life, let alone purpose.]

Quote of the Day: 13 November 2024 #QotD

“The enemy is anybody who’s going to get you killed, no matter which side he’s on[.]” -John Yossarian, Catch-22
[Or cause you to lose politically. Or, really, whatever constitutes a decisive loss in whatever endeavor you are engaged in.]

Quote of the Day: 12 November 2024 #QotD

“There is a long road yet.” -Gandalf, The Hobbit
[Whatever it is, there is plenty left to do.]

Quote of the Day: 11 November 2024 #QotD

“Human beings never think for themselves, they find it too uncomfortable. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told—and become upset if they are exposed to any different view.” -Ian Malcolm, The Lost World
[This is largely true. I have to wonder how often this applies to me. But is it just human nature, or have we become lazy in these times?]

Quote of the Day: 10 November 2024 #QotD

“How would He want each one of His children to be welcomed, cared for, nourished, and loved? How would He want us to feel when we come to be renewed through remembering and worshipping Him?” -Patrick Kearon

Quote of the Day: 9 November 2024 #QotD

“People don’t want truth. They say that they do but what they mean is that they want the truth to agree with them.” -Master Logaris, The Book That Wouldn’t Burn
[As has been observed many times in the past. No one has been able to figure out what to do about it, though.]

Quote of the Day: 8 November 2024 #QotD

“People who probably weren’t bad could kill you.” -Terry Pratchett
[This is true whether these people mean to kill you or not. They could be motivated by mistaken beliefs, misplaced animus, or something else. Or they may not be motivated to kill you at all, and it is entirely a second order effect, or an unintended outcome. None of that would make you any less dead, though.]

Quote of the Day: 7 November 2024

“Real Christianity and consistent Atheism both make demands on a man.” -C. S. Lewis
[Any system of belief does, as long as it is consistent. Otherwise, it is useless. One of the two here happens to be true. The other ... Well, it might be useful to some who are unable to accept reality.]

Quote of the Day: 6 November 2024 #QotD

“[M]en are so simple, and governed so absolutely by their present needs, that he who wishes to deceive will never fail in finding willing dupes.” -Niccolo Machiavelli
[If you would avoid being deceived yourself, seek first to understand where you are easily led.]

Quote of the Day: 5 November 2024 #QotD

“We really need to cultivate better candidates at all levels-- there are far too many elections where the best choice is ‘none of the above’.” -Carol Roth
[It's election day. Nothing to get excited about. I'm actually pondering whether to hold my nose and vote for the lesser of two evil, or can I justify retaining my dignity and not throwing a vote after a bad candidate just because the other one is worse.]

Quote of the Day: 4 November 2024 #QotD

“Gratitude is best and most effective when it does not evaporate itself in empty phrases.” -A Wise Man (attributed), Foundation and Empire
[I know that I feel gratitude the most when it is expressed sincerely and in a novel manner. Otherwise, it is either trite, or flippant. At least, that is how I perceive it.]