PROVERBS AND QUOTATIONS, NINTH YEAR CYCLE

GOAL 9: VALUE, GOAL, AND DECISION MOTIVATION

FIRST SEMESTER

Week One. Theme: Wisdom, Knowledge, Communication

 1.                "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding."  Solomon, Proverbs 4:7

2.                "The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance."  Spurgeon

3.                "Wisdom is only found in truth."  Goethe

4.                "Never mistake knowledge for wisdom.  One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life."  Anonymous

5.                "People are lonely because they build walls in­stead of bridges."  Joseph F. Newton

Week Two. Theme: The dignity of labor (Labor Day tie-in)

6.                "Strike the right of associating for the sake of labor from the privileges of a free man, and you may as well at once bind him to a master."  William Cullen Bryant

7.                "Honor lies in honest toil."  Grover Cleveland

8.                "A truly American sentiment recognizes the dignity of labor and the fact that honor lies in honest toil."  President Grover Cleveland

9.                “The laborer is worthy of his hire.”  Luke 10:7

10.           "No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem." Booker T. Washington

Week Three. Theme: Autobiography, Writing

11.           "I, on my side, require of every writer, first and last, a simple and sincere account of his own life."  Thoreau

12.           "Every person born into this world represents something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique."  Martin Buber

13.           "In a very real sense, the writer writes in order to teach himself, to understand himself, to satisfy himself."  Alfred Kazin

14.           "The world is a great mirror.  It reflects back to you what you are.  If you are loving, if you are friendly, if you are helpful, the world will prove loving and friendly and helpful to you.  The world is what you are."  Thomas Dreier

15.           "Everyone has inside himself a piece of good news!  The good news is that you really don't know how great you can be, how much you can love, what you can accomplish and what your potential is."  Anne Frank

Week Four. Theme: Value and Significance of the Individual

16.           "It is in men as in soils, where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of."  Jonathan Swift

17.           "To have one's individuality completely ignored is like being pushed quite out of life.  Like being blown out as one blows out a light."  Evelyn Scott

18.           "The thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which must also make you lonely." Lorraine Hansberry

19.           "Every one lives by selling something."  Robert Louis Stevenson

20.           "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"  Mark 8:36, Jesus

Week Five. Theme:  Listening/Language

21.           "The greatest gift you can give another is the purity of your attention."  Richard Moss, M.D.

22.           “As I get older, I’ve learned to listen to people rather than accuse them of things.” Po Bronson

23.           "Language is the dress of thought; every time you talk your mind is on parade." Anonymous

24.           "The limits of my language mean the limits of my world."  Ludwig Wittgenstein

25.           "When a dullard speaks in a slovenly way, his speech suffers not merely from dullness but from ignorance, and his whole life, in a sense, suffers—though he may not feel pain."  E. B. White

Week Six. Theme:  Conflict Avoidance

26.           "Never does the human soul appear so strong and noble as when it forgoes revenge and dares to forgive an injury."  E. H. Chapin

27.           "Write injuries in dust, benefits in marble."  Benjamin Franklin

28.           “Doing an injury puts you below your enemy; revenging one makes you but even with him; forgiving it sets you above him.”  Benjamin Franklin

29.           "Education is the vaccine for violence."  Edward James Olmos

30.           "He who has not forgiven an enemy has not yet tasted one of the most sublime enjoyments of life."  Johann Lavater

Week Seven. Theme: Conflict Avoidance

31.           "A soft answer turneth away wrath:  but grievous words stir up anger."  Solomon, Proverbs 15:1

32.           "It is an honor for a man to cease from strife:  but every fool will be meddling."  Solomon, Proverbs 20:3

33.           "Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles."  Solomon, Proverbs 21:23

34.           "When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him."  Solomon, Proverbs 16:7

35.           "Blessed are the peacemakers:  for they shall be called the children of God."  Matthew 5:9

Week Eight. Theme:  Standing Alone

36.           "Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions.  Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."  Mark Twain

37.           "It is just as hard to do your duty when men are sneering at you as when they are shooting at you."  Woodrow Wilson

38.           "He that always gives way to others will end in having no principles of his own."  Aesop

39.           "The strongest man is the one who stands most alone."  Henrik Ibsen, An Enemy of the People

40.           "That man will do little in the world who can be terrified by clamor, or who surrenders convictions because all are not agreed as to their truth."  John Urquhart

Week Nine. Theme:  Standing Alone and Controversy

41.           "You shall not follow a crowd to do evil."  Exodus 23:2

42.           “Follow your honest convictions and be strong.” William Makepeace Thackeray

43.           "Through the centuries, controversy has been the servant of education.  There can be no education without controversy."  H. R. Gaither

44.           “No great advance has ever been made in science, politics, or religion, without controversy.” Lyman Beecher

45.           “If a cause be good, the most violent attack of its enemies will not injure it so much as an injudicious defense of it by its friends.” Charles Colton

Week Ten. Theme:  Failure

46.              “The only time you don’t want to fail is the last time you try.” Charles F. Kettering

47.              "Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently."  Henry Ford

48.              "It is no disgrace to fail; it is a disgrace to do less than your best to keep from failing."  Dr. Bob Jones, Sr.

49.              "There are no secrets to success.  It is the result of preparation and hard work, learning from failure."  General Colin L.  Powell

50.              "Never let the sense of failure corrupt your new action."  Oswald Chambers

Week Eleven. Theme:  Politics (Key to election time)

51.           "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."  Edmund Burke

52.           "The penalty that good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by men worse than themselves."  Plato

53.           "Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote." George Jean Nathan

54.           "Nothing is politically right which is morally wrong."  Daniel O'Connell

55.           "If fifty million people say a foolish thing it is still a foolish thing."  Anatole France

Week Twelve. Theme:  Consequences

56.           "One of the hardest things to teach a child is that the truth is more important than the consequences."  O. A. Battista

57.           "We have to give our children, especially black boys, something to lose. Children make foolish choices when they have nothing to lose." Jawanza Kunjufu

58.           "Freedom, after all, is simply being able to live with the consequences of your decisions."  James X. Mullen

59.           "I tell the honest truth in my paper, and leave the consequences to God."  James Gordon Bennett

60.           "If you don't risk anything, you risk even more." Erica Jong

Week Thirteen. Theme:  Decisions

61.           "Nothing great was ever done without an act of decision." Arthur Bryant

62.           "The more decisions that you are forced to make alone, the more you are aware of your freedom to choose." Thornton Wilder

63.           “Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.” Andrew Jackson

64.           “Quick decisions are unsafe decisions.” Sophocles

65.           “When, against one’s will, one is high pressured into making a hurried decision, the best answer is always No, because No is more easily changed to Yes, than Yes is changed to No.” Charles E. Nielson

Week Fourteen. Theme:  Thankfulness (Key to Thanksgiving Week)

66.           "Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some."  Charles Dickens

67.           "Gratitude to God makes even a temporal blessing a taste of heaven."  William Romaine

68.           "O God, Thou hast given so much to us, give one thing more--a grateful heart."  George Herbert

69.           "We should spend as much time in thanking God for His benefits as we do in asking Him for them."  St. Vincent de Paul

70.           "A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues."  Cicero

Week Fifteen. Theme:  Decision Making

71.            “Deliberate with caution, but act with decision; and yield with graciousness or oppose with firmness.” Charles Hole

72.           “When possible make decisions now, even if action is in the future. A reviewed decision usually is better than one reached at the last moment.” William B. Given, Jr.

73.           “In many lines of work, it isn’t how much you do that counts, but how much you do well and how often you decide right.” William Feather

74.           “When you approach a problem, strip yourself of preconceived opinions and prejudice, assemble and learn the facts of the situation, make the decision which seems to you to be the most honest, and then stick to it.” Chester Bowles

75.           “Before you begin, get good counsel; then, having decided, act promptly.” Sallust

Week Sixteen. Theme:  Decision Making/Goals

76.           “Man ultimately decides for himself. And in the end, education must be education toward the ability to decide.” Viktor E. Frankl

77.           “Not only strike while the iron is hot, but make it hot by striking.” Oliver Cromwell

78.           “Don’t be afraid to take a big step when one is indicated. You can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps.” David Lloyd George

79.           “Long-range planning does not deal with future decisions, but with the future of present decisions.” Peter Drucker

80.           "No one ever accomplishes anything of consequence without a goal.  Goal setting is the strongest human force for self-motivation."  Paul Myer

Week Seventeen. Theme:  Christmas

81.           "Christ is the great central fact in the world's history; to him everything looks forward or backward.  All the lines of the world's history converge upon him.  The greatest and most momentous fact which the history of the world records is the fact of his birth."  Charles H. Spurgeon

82.           "The whole world that knows about Christ's coming dates its whole life from it.  Such is the splendor and importance of the advent of Jesus Christ."  Phillips Brooks

83.           "Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind."  Shakespeare

84.           “The Christmas spirit brings home to us—or should bring home to us—the profound Biblical truth that it is more blessed to give than to receive. Anything which inspires unselfishness makes for our ennoblement. Christmas does that. I am all for Christmas.” B. C. Forbes

85.           "For somehow, not only at Christmas, But all the year through, The joy that you give to others Is the Joy that comes back to you."  John Greenleaf Whittier

Week Eighteen. Theme:  New Year and Personal Improvement

86.           "No one ever regarded the first of January with indifference."  Charles Lamb 

87.           "January 2 is when most people find that it is easier to break a resolution than a habit."  Farm Journal

88.           "If every year we would root out one vice, we should soon become perfect men."  Thomas A'Kempis

89.           "Short as life is, we make it still shorter by the careless waste of time."  Victor Hugo

90.           "We always have time for the things we put first."  Anonymous

Week Nineteen. Theme:  Reading, Time, Dr. Martin Luther King

91.           "In spite of our protestations that we are "too busy" to do any serious reading, we might as well honestly admit that it is...either because we do not organize our time to fit in reading, or that we do not utilize our odd hours."  Robert R. Updegraff

92.           "Time is the coin of your life.  It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent.  Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you."  Carl Sandburg

93.           "We must use time creatively and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right."  Martin Luther King, Jr.

94.           "Human progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability."  Martin Luther King, Jr.

95.           "The aftermath of violence is tragic bitterness."  Martin Luther King, Jr.

Week Twenty. Theme: Dr. Martin Luther King

96.           "Get the weapon of non-violence, the breastplate of righteousness, the armor of truth, and just keep marching."  Martin Luther King, Jr.

97.           "Men must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."  Martin Luther King, Jr.

98.           "Along the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate.  This can only be done by projecting the ethic of love to the center of our lives."  Martin Luther King, Jr.

99.           "The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important."  Martin Luther King, Jr.

100.      “The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.” Martin Luther King, Jr.