Morning Briefings

Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of his way, but must accept his lot calmly if they even roll a few more upon it.

– Albert Schweitzer

A small person with small ideas won’t lead us to new levels of excellence or an improved quality of life. There are a hundred times more small people than big people in the world. Wherever they are, they do their best to shoot down people with big visions, big dreams and big perspectives. This is sad, because all of us, including the small people, ultimately benefit from the big ideas.

– Kent M. Keith
Anyway–The Paradoxical Commandments: Finding Personal Meaning in a Crazy World

For ‘the 43’ — who I continue to pray for every day. I can’t imagine a reason I would ever stop. They are: Vince Bianco, Father Joe Scerbo, Laura Dame, Mr. Beman, Mark Hammond, Michael & Lucy Joerger, Janice Leach, Sheila Sullivan, Erika Markel, Shelley Fyffe, Lynn Gallagher, Robin Wilder, Cathy Holiday, Sandy Marquez, Lu Durbin, The Ward Family, Kevin & Evelyn Flores, Arnold Steinberg, Patrice Sanchez, David & Nancy Paskowitz, Kathryn Downs, Pete & Eileen Smith, Milina & Jimmy Bianco, Shauna Hull, Janice Germaine, Lori Shelton-Jenks, Marybeth Robb, Tina Dorn-Brown, Rose & Vern Hand, Kathleen French, Autumn Esser, Irene Hung, Annette Berger, Shelly Thayer, Megan Bianco, Bailey Bianco, Pam Malchow, Cathy Lawson Kolbly, Robin & Kelly Richardson, Karen Burns, Angela Macabuhay, Chris Fritz, Angie Burns.

– Leslie Bianco, from the Dedication of our book and as referenced in
Lent Stories on our Facebook page

Don’t you see these are the days, right now, mid-adventure, that will mean the most to you once your dreams come true?

– Mike Dooley
Notes from the Universe

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

– Samuel Johnson

To become a source of deep satisfaction, a human activity has to meet some stringent requirements. It has to have been important (you don’t get deep satisfaction from trivial things). You have to have put a lot of effort into it. And you have to have been responsible for the consequences. There aren’t many activities that satisfy those three requirements. A good marriage. That qualifies. And having been really good at something–good at something that drew the most from your abilities. That qualifies.

– Charles Murray in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute entitled
The Happiness of the People

God is great, but sometimes life ain’t good, and when I pray it doesn’t always turn out like it should, but I do it anyway. I do it anyway.

– Martina McBride, Anyway from
Wake Up Laughing

If we had no winter, spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.

– Anne Bradstreet
Meditations Divine and Moral (1655)

‘If you can see the road ahead, it is not worth the trip,’ the great Italian poet, Dante, wrote. Surprises can be painful, but they are not boring. The great voyages of history were adventures.

– Reverend James O’Leary
I Think I Am Happier Than I Think I Am

Business is a race to see who can be the first to bring a product to the customer, and inventions and ideas are often born simultaneously around the world by any number of unrelated individuals.

– Yvon Chouinard
Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman