Historical Quotes

Australian History

Australia has been a pioneer of the eight-hour day, the minimum wage, female suffrage and workers' compensation.

Beginning

'What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from'.  T.S.Elliot

Books

'Welcome book lover you are among friends.'  Inscription at Foyles Book Shop in London. 11th November, 2015

Brother

Br Charles Howard quotes in a book titled 'The Vocation of the Brother' a phrase found in the writings of St John Chrysostom: 'The sacrament of being a Brother'.

Change

"The times, they are a-changin'."  Bob Dylan in 1964

'The only constant is change'. Heraclitus c500BC (Greek philosopher)

Church

The modern Church invariably arrives on the scene late and a little out of breath.

Bernard Lonergan,  20th Century Canadian Philosopher

Communication

'The medium is the message'  Marshall McLuhan (1964)

Conflict

'Whether we like it or not, conflict is a big (and necessary) part of our professional and personal lives.' (Rajeev Peshawaria, Be the Change, 2015 p.16)

Conscience

Vatican II tells us that "conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary of a man. There he is alone with God" (GS 16).

Contemplation

'Contemplation is, as Thomas Merton so aptly defined it, a state within which we are present to what is actually going on in our lives, and to the timeless, eternal dimensions inside of that.' Ron Rolheiser'

Courage

'Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it'. Nelson Mandela

Criticism

The Greek Historian, Plutarch, records how Tigranes had someone beheaded for warning of the approach of his enemy, Lucullus, "so no man dared bring him further information". Editorial, Tablet, page 2, 4 February 2012

Death

'They whom we love and lose are no longer where they were before. They are now wherever we are'.  St John Chrysostom

Disposition

'Better to light a candle than to curse the dark'. Confucius

Divine Love

'Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you!  You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you.  In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created.  You were with me, but I was not with you.  Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all.  You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness.  You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness.  You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you.  I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more.  You touched me, and I burned for your peace.' St Augustine

Education

'Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man'  Attributed to the Jesuits

Repetition is the soul of learning

'Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled'. Harvard Business School Professor Howard Stephenson

'Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world'.  Nelson Mandela

Evaluation

'The unexamined life is not worth living.' Socrates

Experience

'Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.'  Oscar Wilde

Facebook

'The mission [of Facebook] is to make the world more open and connected' Mark Zuckerberg, Founder of Facebook.

Faith

'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved'  Rom 10:13.

Formation

'Formation is beyond professional development and training ... it engages the heart and soul'. Mary Aikenhead Ministries Newsletter Journeys 6, 1, March 2014, p.1

Friendship

'Friendship is the only house I have'.  William Butler Yeats

Future

'Future that has not yet been revealed' (1 Jn 3:2)

'The only task worthy of our efforts is to construct the future.' Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

(We are looking for the reference for this second quotation.  Please contact us if you know the source. Thanks. John McMahon 9/1/14)

Generosity

'Blessed are those that can give without remembering and receive without forgetting.' Elizabeth Bibesco

Genius

Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration

God

God is 'The Heart and Beyond of Everything.'  Teilhard de Chardin

'God is closer to us than water is to a fish.' Catherine of Siena

Goals

'If a man does not know which port he is steering for, no wind will be favourable to him' Seneca (Philosopher)

Grace

'Grace is a synthesis of God's love and will, which pours like a mighty torrent through the universe'. Flemish mystic quoted by English novelist Christopher Isherwood

Greatness

'Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them' William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

Hacking

'Done is better than perfect' Facebook's adage in 'The Hacker Way'.

Happiness

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. Mahatma Gandhi

Holiness

Trying to be holy means trying to be yourself.  Thomas Merton (quoted by James Martin SJ)

Intelligence

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination. Albert Einstein

History

'History is the great teacher of public life' Cicero

Invention

Necessity is the mother of invention

Knowledge

There is knowledge worth possessing for what it is and not merely for what it does. John Henry Newman (The Idea of a University)

Joy

'To experience joy, one must be free of anxieties about letting go and expressing feeling. Or to put it differently, one has to be carefree and innocent as a child.'  Alexander Lowen

Laity

Mons Tony Ireland, in one of his homilies, claims Pope Paul VI used to quote the following verse when people would visit him:

'I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as I have among the rest of the Gentiles.  Rom 1:13

Leadership

'Unworthy yet chosen'.  Motto of Pope Francis  (Homily of Mons Tony Ireland, 7th Feb 2014) 

'If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader'. John Quincy Adams

'A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a moulder of consensus'. Martin Luther King Jr

Laity

 'I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but men [and women] who know their religion, who enter into it, you know just where they stand, who know what they hold and what they do not, who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it. I want an intelligent, well-instructed laity - I wish ... to enlarge [their] knowledge, to cultivate [their] reason, to get an insight into the relation of truth to truth, to learn to view things as they are, to understand how faith and reason stand to each other, what are the bases and principles of Catholicism ...' Blessed John Henry Newman  The Present Position of Catholics in England (1851)

Life

'Life is a journey not a destination.' Ralph Waldo Emerson

'Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets. So love the people who treat you right and forget the ones that don't and believe that everything happens for a reason.  If you get a chance, take it.  If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said that it'd be easy, they just promised it would be worth it.' Anonymous 

'Don't live someone else's life.'  Steve Jobs

Love

'To love another person is to see the face of God.'   Les Miserables

'to love, you must encounter.'  Phychiatrist Victor Frankl (1905 - 1997) quoted in Gittens, A (2014) ' "Do this in memory of me": Do What?'

Marcellin Champagnat

'St Marcellin proclaimed the Gospel with a burning heart.  He was sensitive to the spiritual and educational needs of his time, especially to religious indifference and the situations of neglect experienced in a particular way by the young.'  Pope John Paul II at Marcellin's canonisation on 18th April, 1999.

Memory

'Memory is the scribe of the soul'  Aristotle  (quoted in the film Book Thief on 14th Jan 2014 at the Jam Factory in Melbourne)

Music

'If music be the food of love play on' William Shakespeare (12th Night)

Organisation

Organisation is the first sign of intellect. Ronald Fogarty

Peace

'Inner peace begins the moment you choose not to let another person or event control your emotions.'  Author unknown.

Personhood

"This above all: to thine own self be true' Hamlet (Act 1, Scene III)

Ph.D

'A PhD is — or should be — shorthand for an exceptional individual: someone who can come into many different environments and undertake very complicated analyses to produce solutions; an asset in any profession.' (Poole-Warren, The Australian, 22nd Feb, 2017)

Planning

'The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance

But everyone who is hasty comes only to want' Prov 21:5 (NRSV)

'Careful planning puts you ahead in the long run;

Hurry and scurry puts you further behind' Prov 21:5 (The Message)

Prayer

'more things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of'  Tennyson

'intimate sharing between friends' Teresa (Doctor of the Church).

Thomas Celano, the first biographer of St Francis did not so much pray, as himself become a prayer.

Reading

'What is reading, but silent conversation'.  Charles Lamb

Relativism

'There is one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of: almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative'. (Bloom, 1987, p.25)

Secularisation

'religion moving into a less dominant position in society and culture'. Michael Mason CSsR Kairos 22 June 2014 p.11

Silence

'When peaceful silence lay over all,

and night had run half the way of her swift course,

down from the royal throne leapt your all-powerful Word' (Wis. 18:14)

Singing

'Recent psychological research into singing has revealed that it enhances well-being, particularly among those with physical and mental health problems, family difficulties and suffering bereavement.  It encourages a sense of personal worth and develops concentration' (The Tablet, 'Sweet Singing in the Choir', 17/24 December, 2011, p.2).

SOCIETY

There is no such thing as society, only individuals.

Margaret Thatcher,  British Prime Minister

Soul

'I am the captain of my soul' Nelson Mandela Long Road to Freedom

Spirituality

'We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. 
We are spiritual beings having a human experience.'  Teilhard de Chardin

Teaching

The 'office of teaching becomes a foundation of learning [for the teacher].'  St Francis de Sales  Introduction to the Devout Life p.xix.

Technology

My plan is to have a razor sharp focus on what women want - from audio content, to visual to written form - and match it with the best technology and innovation.

Kylie Rogers, Managing Director of Mamamia, 7th September, 2015, The Australian, p.25

Terrorism

What matters most is not the terrorist outrage but the response.   David Marr, The Big Bang, The Saturday Paper, June 28 - July 4, p7.

The Parable of the Prodigal Son  Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

'Rebellion, realisation, return, reconciliation' Mons Tony Ireland on 22nd March, 2014

Thinking

'I think therefore I am'. Descartes

Tradition 

'Tradition does not consist in keeping the ashes, but in passing on the flame.'  St Thomas More

Travel

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. St Augustine (354-430)

Trust

'Trust in the Lord, that He will act'. Psalm 37:5

Understanding

'Everything that one thinks one understands has to be understood over and over again, in its different aspects, each time with the same new shock of discovery'. British psychoanalyst Marion Milner quoted in the Australian Review p.19 on May 18-19, 2013. 

Wisdom

'We find knowledge from without and wisdom from within'.  MWF 2014

Witness

'Preach the Gospel at all times. When necessary, use words'. St Francis of Assisi

Work

'To live well is to work well, to show a good activity'.  St Thomas Aquinas

Writing

'I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time'. Blaise Paschal

'What you lack on style, you make up for in charity.'  Brendan Geary

'Writers work it out as they write' MWF 2014

'I measure my life by what I create' Joanna Penn Jan 2015