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Character

“The crown and glory of life is Character. It is the noblest possession of the individual, constituting a rank in itself and an estate in the general good-will. Character dignifies every station, and exalts every position in society. It exercises a greater power than wealth, and secures all honor without the jealousies of fame. It carries with it an influence which always tells, for it is the result of proven honor, rectitude, and consistency – qualities which, perhaps, more than any other, command the general confidence and respect of one’s fellow citizens.

Character is human nature in its best form. It is moral order embodied in the individual. People of character are not only the conscience of society, but in every well-governed state, they are its best motive power – for it is moral qualities in the main which rule the world. Even in war, Napoleon said, the moral is to the physical as ten to one.”

-Major A.R. Calhoun

Old Age

“OLD age depends largely upon our attitude toward the whole of life. Old age is not a joke, nor a bore, nor a trial, nor a calamity, though it may be any one of these, as all of life may be. What needs to be stressed is that old age has no content in itself apart from the whole of life. Little can come to old age that was not in and throughout life.

Age, like happiness, is neither to be sought nor evaded. It is a by-product of life rather than life’s end. Not the aim nor goal of life, but the way of life must it be.

In the matter of revering old age, it sometimes is well to ask whether old age is to be respected as a virtue in itself — whether length of days should be regarded as a merit apart from what has gone before. One is sometimes moved to believe that if the aged are unhappy, it is because age brings with it not only opportunity for quiet meditation and serene retrospect, but the necessity of thinking about the great issues of life.”

-Stephen Samuel Wise

Vigilance Is The Price We Pay

“We think we’ve come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches is all ancient history and then, before you can blink an eye, suddenly it threatens to start all over again.

Villains who twirl their mustaches are easy to spot. Those who clothe themselves in good deeds are well-camoflauged.

Someone like that will always be with us, waiting for the right climate in which to flourish. Spreading fear in the name of righteousness.

Vigilance, Mr. Worf. That’s the price we continually have to pay.”

-Jean-Luc Picard