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Charity Is To Be Measured, Not By What One Has Given Away, But By What One Has Left.
-Fulton J. Sheen
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Charity Is To Be

Fulton J. Sheen
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Charity Is To Be Measured, Not By What One Has Given Away, But By What One Has Left.

Understanding the Quote: "charity is to be measured, not by what one has given away,..."

This quote by Fulton J. Sheen reflects deeply on the theme of charity. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Charity, Given, Left, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Fulton J. Sheen interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Fulton J. Sheen

Fulton J. Sheen is celebrated for insightful thoughts on charity and given. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Charity
Given
Left
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There Is A Tendency Among Many Shallow Thinkers Of Our Day To Teach That Every Human Act Is A Reflex, Over Which We Do Not Exercise Human Control. They Would Rate A Generous Deed As No More Praiseworthy Than A Wink, A Crime As No More Voluntary Than A Sneeze. . . Such A Philosophy Undercuts All Human Dignity. . . All Of Us Have The Power Of Choice In Action At Every Moment Of Our Lives.
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Too Many People Get Credit For Being Good, When They Are Only Being Passive. They Are Too Often Praised For Being Broadminded When They Are So Broadminded They Can Never Make Up Their Minds About Anything.
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Let Those Who Think That The Church Pays Too Much Attention To Mary Give Heed To The Fact That Our Blessed Lord Himself Gave Ten Times As Much Of His Life To Her As He Gave To His Apostles.
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Wars Come From Egotism And Selfishness. Every Macrocosmic Or World War Has Its Origin In Microcosmic Wars Going On Inside Millions And Millions Of Individuals.
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Grace Does Not Work Like A Penny In A Slot Machine. Grace Will Move You Only When You Want It To Move You, And Only When You Let It Move You. The Supernatural Order Supposes The Freedom Of The Natural Order, But It Does Not Destroy It.
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Neither Theological Knowledge Nor Social Action Alone Is Enough To Keep Us In Love With Christ Unless Both Are Proceeded By A Personal Encounter With Him. Theological Insights Are Gained Not Only From Between Two Covers Of A Book, But From Two Bent Knees Before An Altar. The Holy Hour Becomes Like An Oxygen Tank To Revive The Breath Of The Holy Spirit In The Midst Of The Foul And Fetid Atmosphere Of The World
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If We Wish To Have The Light, We Must Keep The Sun; If We Wish To Keep Our Forests We Must Keep Our Trees; If We Wish To Keep Our Perfumes, We Must Keep Our Flowers- And If We Wish To Keep Our Rights, Then We Must Keep Our God.
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Blood
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Moral Principles Do Not Depend On A Majority Vote. Wrong Is Wrong, Even If Everybody Is Wrong. Right Is Right, Even If Nobody Is Right.
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Moral
The Way Not To Lead A Monotonous Life Is To Live For Others.
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Joy Is The Happiness Of Love - Love Aware Of Its Own Inner Happiness. Pleasure Comes From Without, And Joy Comes From Within, And It Is, Therefore, Within Reach Of Everyone In The World.
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Happy
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Nothing Is More Destined To Create Deep-seated Anxieties In People Than The False Assumption That Life Should Be Free From Anxieties.
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When Our Conscience Bothers Us, Whether We Admit It Or Not, We Often Try To Justify It By Correcting Others, Or By Finding Fault With Them. The Readiness To Believe Evil About Others Is In Large Part Ammunition For A Thousand Scandals In Our Own Hearts.
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It Is The Basic Principle Of Marxism That Any Attempt To Reconcile Capital And Labor So That They Both Co-operate In Peace And Prosperity Is A Betrayal Of Communism.
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Principles
Believe The Incredible And You Can Do The Impossible.
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Inspiration
Very Few People Believe In The Devil These Days, Which Suits The Devil Very Well. He Is Always Helping To Circulate The News Of His Own Death. The Essence Of God Is Existence, And He Defines Himself As: 'i Am Who Am.' The Essence Of The Devil Is The Lie, And He Defines Himself As: 'i Am Who Am Not.' Satan Has Very Little Trouble With Those Who Do Not Believe In Him; They Are Already On His Side.
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America, It Is Said, Is Suffering From Intolerance - It Is Not. It Is Suffering From Tolerance. Tolerance Of Right And Wrong, Truth And Error, Virtue And Evil, Christ And Chaos. Our Country Is Not Nearly So Overrun With The Bigoted As It Is Overrun With The Broadminded.
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Possession Properly Has Two Faces, Two Aspects: We All Have A Right To Private Property, But This Is Accompanied By Our Responsibility For Its Righteous Use. These Two Things (which Should Be Inseparable) Are Frequently Divided Today. Everyone Admits That The Farmer Who Own A Horse Is Obligated To Feed And Care For It, But In The Case Of Stocks And Bonds, We Often Forget That The Same Principle Should Prevail.
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Horse
Responsibility
Lenten Practices Of Giving Up Pleasures Are Good Reminders That The Purpose Of Life Is Not Pleasure. The Purpose Of Life Is To Attain To Perfect Life, All Truth And Undying Ecstatic Love - Which Is The Definition Of God. In Pursuing That Goal We Find Happiness. Pleasure Is Not The Purpose Of Anything; Pleasure Is A By-product Resulting From Doing Something That Is Good. One Of The Best Ways To Get Happiness And Pleasure Out Of Life Is To Ask Ourselves, 'how Can I Please God?' And, 'why Am I Not Better?' It Is The Pleasure-seeker Who Is Bored, For All Pleasures Diminish With Repetition.
Giving Up
Practice
Perfect
It Is Easy To Find Truth, Though It Is Hard To Face It, And Harder Still To Follow It.
Faces
Easy
Harder
One Of The Greatest Disasters That Happened To Modern Civilization Was For Democracy To Inscribe "liberty" On Its Banners Instead Of "justice." Because "liberty" Was Considered The Ideal It Was Not Long Until Some Men Interpreted It As Meaning "freedom From Justice"; Then When Religion And Decent Government Attempted To Bring Them Back To Justice, Organized Into "freedom Groups" They Protested That Their Constitutional And Natural Rights Were Being Violated.
Wisdom
Men
Rights
At Cana, [mary] Gave Him As A Savior To Sinners; On The Cross He Gave Her As A Refuge To Sinners.
Crosses
Mary
Savior
Far Better It Is For You To Say: "i Am A Sinner," Than To Say: "i Have No Need Of Religion." The Empty Can Be Filled, But The Self-intoxicated Have No Room For God.
Self
Rooms
Needs
Facts Themselves Do Not Give Knowledge
Giving
Facts
The Egocentric Is Always Frustrated, Simply Because The Condition Of Self-perfection Is Self-surrender. There Must Be A Willingness To Die To The Lower Part Of Self, Before There Can Be A Birth To The Nobler.
Self
Perfection
Frustrated
The Fact The Enemies Of God Must Face Is That Modern Civilization Has Conquered The World, But In Doing So Has Lost Its Soul. And In Losing Its Soul It Will Lose The Very World It Gained. Even Our Own So-called Liberal Culture In These United States Which Has Tried To Avoid Complete Secularization By Leaving Little Zones Of Individual Freedom Is In Danger Of Forgetting That These Zones Were Preserved Only Because Religion Was In Their Soul. And As Religion Fades So Will Freedom, For Only Where The Spirit Of God Is, Is There Liberty.
Civilization
Leaving
Soul
Every Man Rejoices Twice When He Has A Partner In His Joy. He Who Shares Tears With Us Wipes Them Away. He Divides Them In Two, And He Who Laughs With Us Makes The Joy Double.
Men
Two
Laughing
Broadmindedness, When It Means Indifference To Right And Wrong, Eventually Ends In A Hatred Of What Is Right.
Mean
Hatred
Tolerance
When The Will Loves Anything That Is Below It In Dignity, It Degrades Itself.
Dignity
Degrade
The Modern Man, Finding That Humanism And Sex Both Fail To Satisfy, Seeks His Happiness In Science ... But Science Fails Too, For It Is Something More Than A Knowledge Of Matter The Soul Craves.
Sex
Science
Men
The Only Way To Win Audiences Is To Tell People About The Life And Death Of Christ. Every Other Approach Is A Waste.
Winning
People
Life And Death
Jealousy Is The Tribute Which Mediocrity Pays To Genius.
Jealousy
Envy
Catholic
Knowing Belongs To Man's Intellect Or Reason; Loving Belongs To His Will. The Object Of The Intellect Is Truth; The Object Of The Will Is Goodness Or Love.
Men
Knowing
Reason
If All Things In This Universe Exist, It Is Because They Participate In The Being Of God, If There Are Some Things With Life, It Is Because They Are Reflections Of The Life Of God; If There Are Beings Endowed With Intellect And Will - Like Men And Angels - It's Because They Are A Participation Of The Sovereign Intellect Which Is God.
Angel
Reflection
Men
If We Had Intellectual Vigour Enough To Ascend From Effects To Causes, We Would Explain Political, Economical And Social Phenomena Less By Credit Sheets, Balance Of Trade And Reparations Than By Our Attitude Towards God.
Attitude
Political
Intellectual
There Are No Planes In The Spiritual Life; We Are Either Going Uphill Or Coming Down.
Faith
Spiritual
Planes
When The Record Of Any Human Life Is Set Down, There Are Three Pairs Of Eyes Who See It In A Different Light. There Is The Life As I See It. As Others See It, And As God Sees It.
Eye
Light
Different
Some Will Not Look On Suffering Because It Creates Responsibility.
Wisdom
Fun
Responsibility
Help Someone In Distress And You Lighten Your Own Burden; The Very Joy Of Alleviating The Sorrow Of Another Is The Lessening Of One's Own.
Joy
Sorrow
Helping
The Old Liberal Rebelled Against Taxation Without Responsibility, The New Liberal Wants The Taxation As A Handout Without Responsibility.
Responsibility
Taxation
Want
There Are Ultimately Only Two Possible Adjustments To Life; One Is To Suit Our Lives To Principles; The Other Is To Suit Principles To Our Lives. If We Do Not Live As We Think, We Soon Begin To Think As We Live. The Method Of Adjusting Moral Principles To The Way Men Live Is Just A Perversion Of The Order Of Things.
Men
Thinking
Order
The Power Of The Rosary Is Beyond Description.
Rosary
Description
Praying The Rosary
Hearing Nuns' Confessions Is Like Being Stoned To Death With Popcorn.
Catholic
Religion
Popcorn
Communism Is The Final Logic Of The Dehumanization Of Man. The Industrial Civilization Of The Western World Has No Intent To Destroy Man's Freedom Or To Deny His Personality. But Communism Does. Denying God, It Reduces Man To A Robot.
Men
Civilization
Personality
The Rosary Is The Book Of The Blind.
Book
Rosary
Blind
Men Work Harder And More Readily When They Labor On That Which Is Their Own.
Hard Work
Men
Politics
Love Is The Key To The Mystery. Love By Its Very Nature Is Not Selfish, But Generous. It Seeks Not Its Own, But The Good Of Others. The Measure Of Love Is Not The Pleasure It Gives-that Is The Way The World Judges It-but The Joy And Peace It Can Purchase For Others.
Selfish
Love Is
Keys
Before The Sin, Satan Assures Us That It Is Of No Consequence; After The Sin, He Persuades Us That It Is Unforgivable.
Sin
Satan
Unforgivable
Modern Minds No Longer Object To The Church Because Of The Way They Think, But Because Of The Way They Live. They No Longer Have Difficulties With The Creed, But With Her Commandments. The Heresy Of Our Day Is Not The Heresy Of Thought, But Of Action.
Thinking
Mind
Church
Because God Is Full Of Life, I Imagine Each Morning Almighty God Says To The Sun, "do It Again"; And Every Evening To The Moon And The Stars, "do It Again"; And Every Springtime To The Daisies, "do It Again"; And Every Time A Child Is Born Into The World Asking For Curtain Call, That The Heart Of The God Might Once More Ring Out In The Heart Of The Babe.
Morning
Stars
Children
Not Only Were The Jews Expecting The Birth Of A Great King, A Wise Man And A Saviour, But Plato And Socrates Also Spoke Of The Logos And Of The Universal Wise Man 'yet To Come'. Confucius Spoke Of 'the Saint'; The Sibyls, Of A 'universal King'; The Greek Dramatist, Of A Saviour And Redeemer To Unloose Man From The 'primal Eldest Curse'. All These Were On The Gentile Side Of The Expectation. What Separates Christ From All Men Is That First He Was Expected; Even The Gentiles Had A Longing For A Deliverer, Or Redeemer. This Fact Alone Distinguishes Him From All Other Religious Leaders.
Wise
Religious
Kings
We Can Think Of Lent As A Time To Eradicate Evil Or Cultivate Virtue, A Time To Pull Up Weeds Or To Plant Good Seeds. Which Is Better Is Clear, For The Christian Ideal Is Always Positive Rather Than Negative. A Person Is Great Not By The Ferocity Of His Hatred Of Evil, But By The Intensity Of His Love For God. Asceticism And Mortification Are Not The Ends Of A Christian Life; They Are Only The Means. The End Is Charity. Penance Merely Makes An Opening In Our Ego In Which The Light Of God Can Pour. As We Deflate Ourselves, God Fills Us. And It Is God’s Arrival That Is The Important Event.
Christian
Weed
Mean
Man Is Incurably Curious.
Men
Curious
It Was To A Virgin Woman That The Birth Of The Son Of God Was Announced. It Was To A Fallen Woman That His Resurrection Was Announced.
Jesus
Son
Birth
So The Divine Love Is Sacrificial Love. Love Does Not Mean To Have And To Own And To Possess. It Means To Be Had And To Be Owned And To Be Possessed. It Is Not A Circle Circumscribed By Self, It Is Arms Outstretched To Embrace All Humanity Within Its Grasp.
Mean
Love Is
Self
Temptation Is Not A Sin But Playing With Temptation Invites Sin.
Temptation
Sin
Invites
There Are Angels Near You To Guide You And Protect You, If You Would But Invoke Them. It Is Not Later Than We Think, It Is A Bigger World Than We Think.
Angel
Thinking
World
Most Commit The Same Mistake With God That They Do With Their Friends: They Do All The Talking.
Mistake
Talking
Same Mistakes
Our Happiest Times Are Those In Which We Forget Ourselves, Usually In Being Kind To Someone Else. That Tiny Moment Of Self-abdication Is An Act Of True Humility: The Man Who Loses Himself Finds Himself And Finds His Happiness.
Humility
Men
Self
The Mark Of The Christian Is The Willingness To Look For The Divine In The Flesh Of A Babe In A Crib, The Continuing Christ Under The Appearance Of Bread On An Altar, And A Meditation And A Prayer On A String Of Beads
Christian
Prayer
Meditation
Pride Is The King Of Vices...it Is The First Of The Pallbearers Of The Soul...other Vices Destroy Only Their Opposite Virtues, As Wantonness Destroys Chastity; Greed Destroys Temperance; Anger Destroys Gentleness; But Pride Destroys All Virtues.
Kings
Pride
Opposites
The Mark Of Man Is Initiative, But The Mark Of Woman Is Cooperation. Man Talks About Freedom; Woman About Sympathy, Love, Sacrifice. Man Cooperates With Nature; Woman Cooperates With God. Man Was Called To Till The Earth, To "rule Over The Earth"; Woman To Be The Bearer Of A Life That Comes From God.
Sympathy
Sacrifice
Men
Freedom Does Not Mean That Right To Do Whatever We Please, But Rather To Do As We Ought. The Right To Do Whatever We Please Reduces Freedom To A Physical Power And Forgets That Freedom Is A Moral Power.
Freedom
Mean
Doe
The World May Disagree With The Church, But The World Knows Very Definitely With What It Is Disagreeing. In The Future As In The Past, The Church Will Be Intolerant About The Sanctity Of Marriage, For What God Has Joined Together No Man Shall Put Asunder; She Will Be Intolerant About Her Creed, And Be Ready To Die For It, For She Fears Not Those Who Kill The Body, But Rather Those Who Have The Power To Cast Body And Soul Into Hell.
Past
Men
Soul
Once You Have Surrendered Yourself, You Make Yourself Receptive. In Receiving From God, You Are Perfected And Completed.
Receiving
Receptive
Never Will We Be Able To Understand Our Times If We Naively 'think' Of This System Of Self Government As The Work Of A Few Gangsters Or The Creation Of A Pack Of Criminals We Call A Political Party. The Appeal Of Socialism, Fascism And Communism Was Principally Negative; They Were Protests Against A Live And Let Live Anything Goes Liberalism, A Spineless Indifference To Causes, A Failure To Recognize That Nothing Was Evil Enough To Hate, And Nothing Was Good Enough To Die For.
Hate
Party
Thinking
The Science Of A Religious Man Must Be Scientific; The Religion Of A Scientific Man Must Be Religious.
Religious
Men
Confiscation In Any Form Is An Unhealthy Solution For A Real Disease. It Amounts To Telling Men That Because They Are Economically Crippled, They Must Abandon All Efforts To Get Well And Allow The State To Provide Them With Free Wheelchairs.
Real
Get Well
Men
Sin Is A Disproportionate Seriousness.
Sin
Seriousness
The Rosary Is The Best Therapy For These Distraught, Unhappy, Fearful, And Frustrated Souls, Precisely Because It Involves The Simultaneous Use Of Three Powers: The Physical, The Vocal, And The Spiritual, And In That Order.
Christian
Spiritual
Order
A Person Is Great, Not By The Ferocity Of His Hatred Of Evil, But By The Intensity Of His Love For God.
Evil
Hatred
His Love
When A Man Loves A Woman, He Has To Become Worthy Of Her. The Higher Her Virtue, The More Noble Her Character, The More Devoted She Is To Truth, Justice, Goodness, The More A Man Has To Aspire To Be Worthy Of Her. The History Of Civilization Could Actually Be Written In Terms Of The Level Of Its Women.
Women
Character
Civilization
All Worry Is Atheism, Because It Is A Want Of Trust In God.
Worry
Atheism
Want
To Tell A Woman Who Is Forty, "you Look Like Sixteen," Is Boloney. The Blarney Way Of Saying It Is "tell Me How Old You Are, I Should Like To Know At What Age Women Are The Most Beautiful.
Beautiful
Age
Looks
Everything That Is Full Of Life Loves Change, For The Characteristic Of Life Is Movement Toward A New Goal And Urges Toward New Pleasures
Love Life
Goal
Movement
There Are Two Ways Of Waking Up In The Morning. One Is To Say, 'good Morning, God,' And The Other Is To Say, 'good God, Morning'!
Good Morning
Two
Morning Inspirational
Remember That Every Science Is Based Upon An Abstraction. An Abstraction Is Taking A Point Of View Or Looking At Things Under A Certain Aspect Or From A Particular Angle.
Views
Remember
Angle
If You Do Not Live Out Your Faith Enthusiastically, Maybe You Don't Have Any Faith.
Ifs
Communism Is The Final Logic Of The Dehumanization Of Man.
Men
Finals
Logic
A Smile Across The Aisle Of A Bus In The Morning Could Save A Suicide Later In The Day.
Suicide
Morning
Bus
A Catholic May Sin And Sin As Badly As Anyone Else, But No Genuine Catholic Ever Denies He Is A Sinner. A Catholic Wants His Sins Forgiven - Not Excused Or Sublimated.
Catholic
May
Want
One Function Of The Angels Is Illumination, And The Other Function Is That Of Being A Guardian.
Angel
Illumination
Guardian
But There Was No Room At The Inn"; The Inn Is The Gathering Place Of Public Opinion; So Often Public Opinion Locks Its Doors To The King.
Kings
Doors
Public Opinion
The Pacifist Thinks That The Alternative To War Is Peace; It Is Not. Sometimes The Alternative Is Oppression. Sometimes Certain God-given Rights And Liberties Can Be Preserved Only By Resistance To That Which Would Destroy Them. And To Defend Certain Basic God-given Rights And Liberties Is Not Immoral But Righteous.
War
Thinking
Rights
It Is Not Particularly Difficult To Find Thousands Who Will Spend Two Or Three Hours A Day In Exercising, But If You Ask Them To Bend Their Knees To God In Five Minutes Of Prayer They Protest That It Is Too Long.
Prayer
Exercise
Two
Freedom Is Not Just Something With Which We Are Born; It Is Something We Achieve. America Did Not Receive A Perpetual Endowment Of Freedom; It Has Had To Struggle And Fight To Preserve It. Freedom Is Not An Heirloom Or An Antique; It Is A Life That Must Fight Against The Corrosive Powers Of Death And Nourish Itself On The Daily Bread Of Goodness And Virtue.
Struggle
Fighting
America
Communism Is An Aggressive Religion Of The Species.
Communism
Aggressive
Species
The Greatest Love Story Of All Time Is Contained In A Tiny White Host.
Faith
Inspiration
White
Obedience To Truth Is Obedience To Love.
Saint
Truth Is
Obedience
If The Bringing Of Children Into The World Is Today An Economic Burden, It Is Because The Social System Is Inadequate; And Not Because God’s Law Is Wrong. Therefore The State Should Remove The Causes Of That Burden. The Human Must Not Be Limited And Controlled To Fit The Economic, But The Economic Must Be Expanded To Fit The Human.
Children
Law
Causes
One Becomes More Interested In A Job Of Work After The First Impulse To Drop It Has Been Overcome.
Jobs
Overcoming
Firsts
Many Married Women Who Have Deliberately Spurned The "hour" Of Childbearing Are Unhappy And Frustrated. They Never Discovered The Joys Of Marriage Because They Refused To Surrender To The Obligation Of Their State. In Saving Themselves, They Lost Themselves!
Marriage
Joy
Frustrated
Nothing Can Do Men Of Good Will More Harm Than Apparent Compromises With Parties That Subscribe To Antimoral And Antidemocratic And Anti-god Forces. We Must Have The Courage To Detach Our Support From Men Who Are Doing Evil. We Must Bear Them No Hatred, But We Must Break With Them.
Wisdom
Party
Men
Joy Is Not The Same As Pleasure Or Happiness. A Wicked And Evil Man May Have Pleasure, While Any Ordinary Mortal Is Capable Of Being Happy. Pleasure Generally Comes From Things, And Always Through The Senses; Happiness Comes From Humans Through Fellowship. Joy Comes From Loving God And Neighbor. Pleasure Is Quick And Violent, Like A Flash Of Lightning. Joy Is Steady And Abiding, Like A Fixed Star. Pleasure Depends On External Circumstances, Such As Money, Food, Travel, Etc. Joy Is Independent Of Them, For It Comes From A Good Conscience And Love Of God.
Stars
Independent
Men
The Industrial And Social Injustice Of Our Era Is The Tragic Aftermath Of Democracy's Overemphasis On Freedom As The "right To Do Whatever You Please." No, Freedom Means The Right To Do What You Ought, And Ought Implies Law, And Law Implies Justice, And Justice Implies God. So Too In War, A Nation That Fights For Freedom Divorced From Justice Has No Right To War, Because It Does Not Know Why It Wants To Be Free, Or Why It Wants Anyone Else To Be Free.
Wisdom
War
Mean
When You Are Getting Kicked From The Rear It Means You Are In Front.
Mean
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