Quote #83: on schadenfreude

"Do not rejoice at the fall of your enemy;
do not gloat when he is brought down,
or the Lord will be displeased at the sight,
and will cease to be angry with him."
- Proverbs 24.17-18 (Revised English Bible translation).

Quote #82: on the difficulty of discerning God's will

"Certainly there is no contending against the Will of God; but still there is some difficulty in ascertaining, and applying it, to particular cases." - Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865), 16th president of the United States.

Quote #81: on revenge

"Giving up our desire to take revenge is a hard sacrifice, perhaps the hardest, which Christ requires of us.  For our whole human nature cries out for vengence against our enemies.  The desire for revenge is stronger in our human blood than any other desire.  But - and we know it - we can no longer take revenge.  If my enemy stands there before my eyes, and I am overcome by the obsession to finally be able to take revenge, then Jesus Christ stands at once behind my enemy and entreats me:  do not lift up your hand, but leave vengence to me; I will take it."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Christ's Love and Our Enemies (1938).

Quote #80: on beauty

"Beauty is indeed a good gift of God; but that the good may not think it a great good, God dispenses it even to the wicked." - St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A.D.).

The Cost of Freedom

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it."
--Thomas Paine, The Crisis, No. 4, 1777