CS Lewis on Love

Dr. Hulda Clark on Disease

Peter J. Kreeft on Literature

C S Lewis on Literature

Ursula K. Le Guin on writing

Abraham Lincoln on Our Danger

Benjamin Franklin on Liberty

CS Lewis on Pantheism

Donald M. Murray on Writing

Rick Warren on Our Destiny

George MacDonald on Water

CS Lewis on Love:

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket--safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from the perturbations of love is Hell."

From Dr. Hulda Regehr Clark in "The Cure for All Diseases":

"No matter how long and confusing is the list of symptoms a person has, from chronic

 fatigue to infertility to mental problems, I am sure to find only two things wrong:  they

 have in them pollutants and/or parasites.  I never find lack of exercise, vitamin

 deficiencies, hormone levels or anything else to be a primary causative factor.  So the

 solution to good health is obvious:  Avoid pollution and kill parasites."

From The Philosophy of Tolkien by Peter J. Kreeft:

"As the acts of the body are the acts of the person, as a smile does not merely express happiness but actually contains it, so literature actually contains or incarnates philosophical truths (or falsehoods)."

From C S Lewis on Literature:

"Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary 

competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the 

deserts that our lives have already become." 

Ursula K. Le Guin on writing:

Socrates said, "The misuse of language induces evil in the soul." He wasn't talking about grammar. To misuse language is to use it the way politicians and advertisers do, for profit, without taking responsibility for what the words mean. Language used as a means to get power or make money goes wrong: it lies. Language used as an end in itself, to sing a poem or tell a story, goes right, goes towards the truth.

A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight. By using words well they strengthen their souls. Story-tellers and poets spend their lives learning that skill and art of using words well. And their words make the souls of their readers stronger, brighter, deeper.

Abraham Lincoln in the Lyceum Address:

"...At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it?-- Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never!--All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."

Benjamin Franklin on liberty:

     "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

  "Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power."                           

"The Pantheist's God does nothing, demands nothing. He is there if you wish for Him, like a book on a shelf. He will not pursue you. There is no danger that at any time heaven and earth should flee away at His glance. If He were the truth, then we could really say that all the Christian images of kingship were a historical accident of which our religion ought to be cleansed. It is with a shock that we discover them to be indispensable. You have had a shock like that before, in connection with smaller matters—when the fishing line pulls at your hand, when something breathes beside you in the darkness. So here; the shock comes at the precise moment when the thrill of life is communicated to us along the clue we have been following. It is always shocking to meet life where we thought we were alone. 'Look out!' we cry, 'it's alive'! And therefore this is the very point at which so many draw back—I would have done so myself if I could—and proceed no further with Christianity. An 'impersonal God'—well and good. A subjective God of beauty, truth and goodness, inside our own heads—better still. A formless life-force surging through us, a vast power which we can tap—best of all. But God Himself, alive, pulling at the other end of the cord, perhaps approaching at an infinite speed, the hunter, king, husband—that is quite another matter. There comes a moment when the children who have been playing at burglars hush suddenly: was that a real footstep in the hall? There comes a moment when people who have been dabbling in religion ('Man's search for God'!) suddenly draw back. Supposing we really found Him? We never meant it to come to that! Worse still, supposing He had found us?" 

Donald M. Murray on writing: 

"We write to think--to be surprised by what appears on the page;  to explore our world with language; to discover meaning that teaches us and that may be worth sharing with others.  We do not know what we want to say before we say it; we write to know what we want to say."

From Rick Warren in "The Purpose Driven Life":

"You are not an accident.  Your birth was no mistake or mishap, and your life is no fluke of

nature. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did.  He was not at all surprised

by your birth. In fact, he expected it.  Long before you were conceived by your parents,

you were conceived in the mind of God. He thought of you first. It is not fate, nor

chance, nor luck, nor coincidence that you are breathing at this very moment. You are

alive because God wanted to create you!....

God prescribed every single detail of your body. He deliberately chose your race, the

color of your skin, your hair, and every other feature. He custom-made your body just

the way he wanted it. He also determined the natural talents you would possess and the

uniqueness of your personality....

Because God made you for a reason, he also decided when you would be born and how

long you would live. He planned the days of your life in advance, choosing the exact time

of your birth and death.... 

God also planned where you’d be born and where you’d live for his purpose. Your race

and nationality are no accident. God left no detail to chance. He planned it all for his

purpose....

Nothing in your life is arbitrary. It’s all for a purpose.  Most amazing, God decided how

you would be born.  Regardless of the circumstances of your birth or who your parents

are, God had a plan in creating you. It doesn’t matter whether your parents were good,

bad, or indifferent. God knew that those two individuals possessed exactly the right

genetic makeup to create the custom “you” he had in mind. They had the DNA God

wanted to make you.  While there are illegitimate parents, there are no illegitimate

children. Many children are unplanned by their parents, but they are not unplanned by

God.

God’s purpose took into account human error, and even sin.  God never does anything

accidentally, and he never makes mistakes. He has a reason for everything he creates. Every

plant and every animal was planned by God, and every person was designed with a purpose

in mind.

God.  God’s motive for creating you was his love.  God was thinking of you even before

he made the world. In fact, that’s why he created it! God designed this planet’s

environment just so we could live in it. We are the focus of his love and the most valuable

of all his creation. This is how much God loves and values you!"

From George MacDonald