Not to be able to bear poverty is a shameful thing, but not to know how to chase it away by work is a more shameful thing yet.
It was a shameful thing that she had nothing of which to be ashamed.
The only thing of my very own which I contribute to my redemption is the sin from which I need to be redeemed.
It's going to be a lot of work, Gideon," Eva warned him. "I'm not afraid of work." He was touching me restlessly as if it were as necessary to him as breathing. "I'm only afraid of losing you.
The human being who lives only for himself finally reaps nothing but unhappiness. Selfishness corrodes. Unselfishness ennobles, satisfies.
You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary.
There is, in fact, a paradox about working to serve the community, and it is this: that to aim directly at serving the community is to falsify the work; the only way to serve the community is to forget the community and serve the work.
The only thing that I can contribute as director is to work with the performers in a way that brings out the drama.
What a wonderful thing is to be able to contribute to the restoration of someone's health. It's not only a feeling that I'm worth something, but that I have something to contribute.
At the heart of the Protestant faith is the conviction that there is nothing we contribute to our salvation but our sin, no merit we bring but Christ's, and nothing necessary for justification except faith alone.
Any decent society must generate a feeling of community. Community offsets
loneliness. It gives people a vitally necessary sense of belonging. Yet today
the institutions on which community depends are crumbling in all the
techno-societies. The result is a spreading plague of loneliness.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Not only is music a beautiful and sublime science, the study of which ennobles and purifies the mind of its votary, but how many and excellent are its ministries to others!
How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it.
The good things of life do not fall from the skies. They can only come by hard work and over a long time. The government cannot produce results unless the people support and sustain the work of the government. There may be times when, in the interest of the whole community, we may have to take steps that are unpopular with a section of the community. On such occasions, remember that the principle which guides our actions is that the paramount interest of the whole community must prevail.
Literature is the only art in which the audience performs the score.