John Calvin

“I do not so strictly demand evangelical perfection that I would not acknowledge as a Christian one who has not yet attained it. For thus all would be excluded from the church, since no one is found who is not far removed from it, while many have advanced a little toward it whom it would be nevertheless be unjust to cast away. What then? Let that target be set before our eyes at which we are earnestly to aim….Let each one of us, then, proceed according to the measure of his puny capacity and set out upon the journey we have begun. No one shall set out so inauspiciously as not daily to make some headway, though it be slight. Therefore, let us not cease so to act that we may unceasingly make some progress in the way of the Lord. And let us not despair at the slightness of our success; for even though attainment may not correspond to desire, when today outstrips yesterday the effort is not lost.”

-John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 6, Paragraph 5

Ann Voskmp

Compassion is birthed out of the Latin “pati” and “cum” and means “to suffer with.” Compassion chooses to suffer with the sick, to weep with the weak, to pray with the powerless, to cry with the castoffs. Compassion is the condition of being fully human and fully Christ-like and being fully with. 

Jane Austen

It isn’t what we say or think that defines us, but what we do.

Sense and Sensibility 

Dorothy Sayers

For the sole true end of education is simply this: to teach men how to learn for themselves, and whatever instruction fails to this is effort spent in vain.

St. Patrick

Christ be with me, Christ within me,

Christ behind me, Christ before me,

Christ beside me, Christ to win me,

Christ to comfort and restore me,

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,

Christ in hearts of all that love me,

Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

Oscar Wilde

All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator; and not life, that art really mirrors...We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.

All art is quite useless.

Pablo Casals

Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that will never be again And what do we teach our children? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are? We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the years that have passed, there has never been another child like you. Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you move. You may become a Shakespeare, a Michaelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel. And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is, like you, a marvel? You must work, we must all work, to make the world worthy of its children.

C. Northcote Parkinson

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

Hyman Rickover

It is necessary for us to learn from others' mistakes. You will not live long enough to make them all yourself.