Saturday ~ November 12, 2022

Moral virtue is a mean that lies between two vices, one of excess and the other of deficiency, and... it aims at hitting both in feelings and actions. So it is hard to be good, for surely it is hard in each instance to find the mean, just as it is hard to find the center of a circle. It is easy to get angry or to spend money - anyone can do that. But to act in the right way toward the right person, in due proportion, at the right time, for the right reason, and in the right manner - that is not easy, and not everyone can do it.

Aristotle, 384 - 322 BCE

Friday ~ November 11, 2022

 I think continually of those who were truly great.

Who, from the womb, remembered the soul's history

Through the corridors of light where the hours are suns,

Endless singing. Whose lovely ambition was that their lips, still touched with fire,

Should tell of the spirit clothed from head to foot in song.

And who hoarded from the spring branches

The desires falling across their bodies like blossoms. 

Stephen Spender, 1909 - 1995

Thursday ~ November 10, 2022

There is a realm of time where the goal is not to have but to be, not to own but to give, not to control but to share, not to subdue but to be in accord. Life goes wrong when the control of space, the acquisition of things of space, becomes our sole concern. The meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space. Six days a week we live under the tyranny of space; on the Sabbath we try to become attuned to the holiness in time.

Abraham Joshua Heschel, 1907 - 1972

Wednesday ~ November 9, 2022

 These days are dangerous.

Virtue is choked with foul Ambition,

And Charity chased hence by

Rancour's hand.

William Shakespeare, 1564 - 1616

Monday ~ November 7, 2022

 A Charm invests a face

Imperfectly beheld - 

The lady dare  not lift her Veil

For fear it be dispelled - 

But peers beyond her mesh  - 

And wishes - and denies - 

Lest Interview - annul a want

That Image - satisfies - 

Emily Dickinson, 1830 - 1886

Sunday, November 6, 2022

 The things that haven't been done before

Are the tasks worthwhile today;

Are you one of the flock that follows, or

Are you one that shall lead the way?

Are you one or the timid souls that quail

at the jeers of a doubting crew,

Or dare you, whether you win or fail,

Strike out for a goal that's new?

~ Edgar Guest, 1881 - 1959