Every solution to every problem creates at least one new problem, often a bigger problem than the original problem.

John S. Waldrip

Reading, like unaided discovery, is learning from an absent teacher. We can only do that successfully if we know how.

Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren ("How To Read A Book")

The goal a reader seeks - be it entertainment, information or understanding - determines the way he reads.

Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren ("How To Read A Book")

Never give a command that you do not intend to be obeyed. There is no more effectual way of teaching a child disobedience than by giving commands that you have no intention of enforcing. The child is thus habituated to disregard its mother; and, in a short time, the habit becomes so strong and the child's contempt for the mother so confirmed that entreaties and threats are alike unheeded.

John Stevens Cabot Abbot (1805-1877)

There is a certain kind of ignorance that precedes knowledge. There is another kind of ignorance that comes after it. The first is the ignorance of those who, not knowing their ABC's, cannot read at all. The second is the ignorance of those who have misread many books. There have always been literate ignoramuses who have read to widely and not well. The Greeks had a name for such a mixture of learning and folly which might be applied to the bookish but poorly read of all ages. They are all sophomores.

Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doran, "How To Read A Book"

The more active the reading the better.

Mortimer J. Adler (1902-2001), author of "How To Read A Book" and associate editor of "Great Books Of The Western World."

To preach and not to catechise is to build without foundation.

Thomas Watson (1620-1686)

What stupid means: 'someone who harms others without procuring any gain for himself or herself - in contrast to the much more predictable bandit who gains something from harming you.'

Carlo M. Cipolla (1922-2000), author of "The Basic Laws Of Human Stupidity"

The conscientious student is the most likely man to become a successful preacher.

Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892)

In all your conduct, manifest a most undeviating consistency. Children, even at a very early age, are eagle-eyed to observe inconsistencies of a parent. And the slightest inconsistency, though it is manifested only in a word or a look, lowers your influence over them in an inconceivable degree. When a child learns to distrust its mother, all her warnings, admonitions, and remonstrances - however earnest and unremitting - fall powerless. This is the chief reason, it is to be feared, why we so frequently see the children of pious parents grow up impenitent. The example of their parents has not been uniformly consistent with their instructions and therefore have these instructions been useless. Mothers! Watch your conduct. Your children watch it.

James Cameron (1809-1873)

Though the Word of God must be your chief study, beware of supposing it must be your only study.

James Cameron (1809-1873)

Single parenthood is a disaster for charity. A huge and persistent giving difference exists between never-married parents and and childless single people - even after correcting for income and other factors. Never-married parents are 21 percentage points less likely to give money each year than childless singles (56 to 77), and also 21 points less likely to volunteer (30 to 51). They are also far less likely to give in less formal ways (for example, they are less than half as likely to donate blood).

Arthur C. Brooks, in "Who Really Cares," published by Basic Books 2006, page 105.

The proud man conceives himself wise enough. He asks no counsel, and thus proves his want of wisdom.

Charles Bridges (1794-1869)

It was nineteen hundred years ago "when Jesus Himself a baby deigned to be and bathed in baby tears His deity," and on that night, when that tiny Child lay in the straw of Bethlehem, began the emancipation of womanhood.

Peter Marshall (1902-1949)

It is a Christian's duty to triumph, not only over the world, but over Satan.

William Bridge (1600-1670)

Continued dependence on government support induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (state of the union address, 1935)

People are more likely to give away earned income, such as wages, than they are to give away unearned income, such as welfare from the government.

Arthur C. Brooks, page 82, "Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism," published by Basic Books, 2006.

[The Apostle Paul] was a metropolitan missioanry with an urban burden.

Matthew Recker

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent mortal busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may sometimes be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)

Paul understood that one of the best vehicles for the propagation of the gospel was the city.

Matthew Recker

People in favor of forced income redistribution are privately less charitable than those who oppose it, regardless of how much money they earn.

Arthur C. Brooks

People who favor government income redistribution are significantly less likely to behave charitably than those who do not.

Arthur C. Brooks

Outward female beauty with indiscreet conduct is valueless and morally ugly.

Sid S. Buzzell

In 2000, religious people – who, her family, earned exactly the same amount as secular people, $49,000 – gave about 3.5 times more money per year (an average of $2210 versus $642). They also volunteered more than twice as often (12 times per year, versus 5.8 times).

Arthur C. Brooks, "Who Really Cares America’s Charity Divide: Who Gives, Who Doesn’t, and Why It Matters," (Basic Books: New York, 2007), page 34.

Americans are now nearly a completely conquered people.

Matthew J. Trewhella