Commonplace Sampler: November

"Freedom is born of self-discipline. No individual, no nation, can achieve or maintain liberty without self-control. The undisciplined man is slave to his own weaknesses."
-Alan Valentine, quoted by Loren C. Dunn, Freedom of the Press in Our Bicentennial Year

In sudden gusts of temptation, God grant him grace to play the hero, if only through hasty flight; but in what are called besetting sins, there is nothing safe but the contrary besetting good habit. And here is where parents have immense power over the future of their children.
-Charlotte Mason, Formation of Character, p21


Ideas are sparks of truth passed from a great thinker to another mind.
-Colleen Manning, "Toward a Definition of a Living Book"


The Lord will not do for us what we can and should do for ourselves.
-Ezra Taft Benson, Teachings of the Prophets ch. 21


Ours is a gospel of work - purposful, unselfish, and rendered in the spirit of the true love of Christ. Only thus may we grow in godly attributes.
Ezra Taft Benson, Teachings of the Prophets ch. 21


Energetic, purposeful work lends to vigorous health, praiseworthy achievement, a clear conscience, and refreshing sleep. Work has always been a boon to man. May you have a wholesome respect for labor whether with head, heart, or hand. May you ever enjoy the satisfaction of honest toil... You will never wish or dream yourself into heaven. You must pay the prince in toil, in sacrifice, and righteous living.
-Ezra Taft Benson, Teachings of the Prophets ch. 21


"The  world is all grown strange. Elf and Dwarf in company walk in our daily fields; folk speak with the Lady of the Wood and yet live; and the Sword comes back to war that was broken in the long ages ere the fathers of our fathers rode into the Mark! How shall a man judge what to do in such times?"
"As he ever has judged," said Aragorn. "Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear; nor are they one thing among Elves and Dwarves and another among Men. It is a man's part to discern them, as much in the Golden Wood as in his own house."
-The Two Towers, JRR Tolkien, p 49-50



I am restless over the possibility, ever present, that education may fail to achieve a righteous purpose and be perversely used. We have many examples in the world where the misuse of this power has degraded men rather than exalted them... The voice of atheism, of corruption, of faithlessness, of dissention resounds from a thousand platforms. It is subsidized from public funds. It is invited to the forum in public institutions, tolerated by most, and encouraged by many. The voice of faith, on the other hand, is fading. Few places are left where it might speak. -Boyd K. Packer, BYU Speeches of the Year, 29 April 1969, p.3