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Some Mothers In Today's World Feel "cumbered" By Home Duties And Are Thus Attracted By Other More "romantic" Challenges. Such Women Could Make The Same Error Of Perspective That Martha Made. The Woman, For Instance, Who Deserts The Cradle In Order To Help Defend Civilization Against The Barbarians May Well Later Meet, Among The Barbarians, Her Own Neglected Child.
-Neal A. Maxwell
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Some Mothers In Today's

Neal A. Maxwell
Some Mothers In Today's World Feel "cumbered" By Home Duties And Are Thus Attracted By Other More "romantic" Challenges. Such Women Could Make The Same Error Of Perspective That Martha Made. The Woman, For Instance, Who Deserts The Cradle In Order To Help Defend Civilization Against The Barbarians May Well Later Meet, Among The Barbarians, Her Own Neglected Child.
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People
Giving
Patience Stoutly Resists Pulling Up The Daisies To See How The Roots Are Doing!
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Our Little Pebble Of Poor Performance Helps To Start, Or To Sustain, An Avalanche.
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Avalanches
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Listen To These Wounds Of Pain Put In The Form Of Questions To Me By A Young Woman Who Had Had Two Abortions: "i Wonder About The Spirits Of Those I Had Aborted, If They Were There, If They Were Hurt? I Was Under Three Months Each Time, But A Mother Feels Life Before She Feels Movement." "i Wonder If They Are Lost And Alone?" "i Wonder If They Will Ever Have A Body?" "i Wonder If I Will Ever Have A Chance Again To Bring Those Spirits Back As Mine?" Alas, Brothers And Sisters, "wickedness Never Was Happiness" (alma 41:10).
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Survival
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Judging
Heaven
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Time
Home
Water
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Moving
Bored
Enemy
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Cheer
Play
Church
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Tree
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Years
Grows
Mother Lode Of Learning.
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Learning
Motherhood
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Inspirational
Spiritual
Achievement
Each Day I See All About Me The Fruits Of Commandment-keeping.
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Commandments
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Inspirational
Patience
Spiritual
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Endure
Contempt
We Cannot Lead Or Draw Others To Christ Unless We Stand Closer To Him Than They Do.
Christ
Draws
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Silence
Would Be
Obedience
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People
Sometimes
Worst
These Transcending Truths Restructure Our Understanding Of Ourselves And Of The Universe And Bring Within Our View Resplendent Reality. To Be Seen Only By Those Who Have Eyes To See, These Flakes Of Fire Are Embedded In The Holy Scriptures. There These Tr.
Eye
Reality
Fire
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Joy
Soul
Suffering
How Can You And I Really Expect To Glide Naively Through Life, As If To Say, 'lord, Give Me Experience, But Not Grief, Not Sorrow, Not Pain, Not Opposition, Not Betrayal, And Certainly Not To Be Forsaken. Keep From Me, Lord, All Those Experiences Which Made Thee What Thou Art! Then, Let Me Come And Dwell With Thee And Fully Share Thy Joy!'
Life
Art
Pain
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Brother
Giving
Individual
The Issue For Us Is Trusting God Enough To Trust Also His Timing. If We Can Truly Believe He Has Our Welfare At Heart, May We Not Let His Plans Unfold As He Thinks Best?
Believe
Heart
Thinking
On The Straight And Narrow Path, There Are Simply No Corners To Be Cut.
Cutting
Path
Corners
I Know The Celestial Criteria Measure Service, Not Status; The Use Of Our Talents, Not The Relative Size Of Our Talent Inventories. I Know That Church Membership Is Not Passive Security But Continuing Opportunity.
Opportunity
Church
Use
Trials And Tribulations Tend To Squeeze The Artificiality Out Of Us, Leaving The Essence Of What We Really Are And Clarifying What We Really Yearn For.
Essence
Leaving
Trials
The Dues Of Discipleship Are High Indeed, And How Much We Can Take So Often Determines How Much We Can Then Give.
Giving
Discipleship
Determine
One Day The Faithful Will Have It All!
Faith
Faithful
One Day
Conscience Warns Us Not To Sink Our Cleats Too Deeply In Mortal Turf, Which Is So Dangerously Artificial.
Cleats
Artificial
Turf
Love Is Never Wasted, Even If It Is Not Reciprocated.
Love Is
Ifs
Education Brightens A Darkened World.
World
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Availability
Lord
Dependability
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Selfishness
Ordinary
Problem
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Sea
Lemmings
Proud
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World
Eternity
Don't Fear, Just Live Right.
Inspirational
Fear
Justice
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Desire
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Time
Law
Worry
Do Not Write A Check With Your Tongue That Your Actions Cannot Cash.
Inspirational
Writing
Cash
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Children
Joy
Missionary
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Trials
Said
Mines
We Should Not Assume; However, That Just Because Something Is Unexplainable By Us, It Is Unexplainable.
Justice
Assuming
Assumption
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Real
Needs
God Knows
Discouragement Is Not The Absence Of Adequacy But The Absence Of Courage.
Courage
Adequacy
Absence
The Enlarging Of The Soul Requires Not Only Some Remodeling, But Some Excavating.
Adversity
Soul
Remodeling
The Acceptance Of The Reality That We Are In The Lord's Loving Hands Is Only A Recognition That We Have Never Really Been Anywhere Else.
Acceptance
Reality
Hands
For The Faithful, Our Finest Hours Are Sometimes During Or Just Following Our Darkest Hours.
Time
Adversity
Faithful
If The Nearly One-and-a-half Million Babies Aborted In America Each Year Could, Somehow, Vote, Chameleon Candidates Would Find Fresh Reason To Be Concerned About Abortion, Whereas Now They Are Unconcerned.
Baby
Years
America
Patient Endurance Permits Us To Cling To Our Faith In The Lord And Our Faith In His Timing When We Are Being Tossed About By The Surf Of Circumstance. Even When A Seeming Undertow Grasps Us, Somehow, In The Tumbling, We Are Being Carried Forward, Though Battered And Bruised.
Endurance
Tumbling
Surf
Meanwhile, Spiritual Submissiveness Brings About The Wiser Use Of Our Time, Talents, And Gifts As Compared With Our Laboring Diligently But Conditionally To Establish Our Own Righteousness Instead Of The Lord's (d&c 1:16). After All, Lucifer Was Willing To Work Very Hard, But Conditionally In His Own Way And For His Own Purposes.
Spiritual
Time
Work
Ultimate Hope Constitutes The Anchor Of The Soul.
Anchors
Soul
Ultimate
God Will Facilitate, But He Will Not Force.
Force
Gods Will
Facilitate
To Be Cheerful When Others Are In Despair, To Keep The Faith When Others Falter, To Be True Even When We Feel Forsaken—all Of These Are Deeply Desired Outcomes During The Deliberate, Divine Tutorials Which God Gives To Us—because He Loves Us. These Learning Experiences Must Not Be Misread As Divine Indifference. Instead, Such Tutorials Are A Part Of The Divine Unfolding.
Giving
Despair
Cheerful
The "new" In Us Is Bound To Notice The "old" That Remains.
Remains
Bounds
For Some Church Members The Book Of Mormon Remains Unread. Others Use It Occasionally As If It Were Merely A Handy Book Of Quotations. Still Others Accept And Read It But Do Not Really Explore And Ponder It. The Book Is To Be Feasted Upon, Not Nibbled (see 2 Nephi 31:20).
Book
Church
Use
When We Rejoice In Beautiful Scenery, Great Art, And Great Music, It Is But The Flexing Of Instincts Acquired In Another Place And Another Time.
Music
Beautiful
Art
The Book Of Mormon Is To Be Feasted Upon, Not Nibbled.
Book
In One Degree Or Another We All Struggle With Selfishness. Since It Is So Common, Why Worry About Selfishness Anyway? Because Selfishness Is Really Self-destruction In Slow Motion.
Struggle
Self
Worry
Endurance Involves Much More Than Putting Up With A Situation; Patient Endurance Is More Than Pacing Up And Down Within The Cell Of Circumstance. True Enduring Represents Not Merely The Passage Of Time, . . . But The Passage Of Soul.
Cells
Soul
Endurance
Satan Delights To Have Us Put Ourselves Down. Self-contempt Is Of Satan. There Is No Such Thing In Heaven.
Self Esteem
Heaven
Delight
Crowds Cannot Make Right What God Has Declared To Be Wrong.
Crowds
At Times God's Best Pupils Experience The Most Rigorous And Continuous Courses. Eventually Those Who Prove To Be Men Of Christ Will Thereby Become Distinguished Alumni Of Life's School Of Affliction, Graduating With Honors.
Life
School
Men
I Find That Goal Setting, When Done This Way, Leads To Goal Achieving. The Chronic Failure To Achieve Goals Lowers Self-esteem. Show Me A Failure To Achieve A Goal, And Usually I Can Show You The Violation Of One Or More Of The Above Criteria. Imposed Goals, Vague Goals, And Unrealistic Goals Tend To Produce Only Partial Successes And Outright Failures.
Self Esteem
Generosity
Goal
Naive Optimism And Pervasive Pessimism Are Both To Be Avoided, Therefore. It's Not An Easy Balance To Maintain, To Be Asked To Work Away In The Ninevehs Of Our Lives Without Being So Conscious Of The Coming Cataclysm That We Are Not Serious Citizens Of Our Communities And Nations. By Living And Sharing The Gospel Of Jesus Christ, We Are Doing The Most Relevant Thing We Can Do By Way Of Helping. (there Are Civic And Other Chores To Be Done, Of Course.) Day In And Day Out, The Gospel Is The One Thing That Is Most Relevant, And We Are To Be Of Good Cheer.
Life
Jesus
Cheer
The Cumulative Weight Of All Mortal Sins--past, Present, And Future--pressed Upon That Perfect, Sinless, And Sensitive Soul! All Our Infirmities And Sicknesses Were Somehow, Too, A Part Of The Awful Arithmetic Of The Atonement. (see Alma 7:11-12; Isa. 53:3-5; Matt. 8:17.) The Anguished Jesus Not Only Pled With The Father That The Hour And Cup Might Pass From Him, But With This Relevant Citation. 'and He Said, Abba, Father, All Things Are Possible Unto Thee; Take Away This Cup From Me.' (mark 14:35-36.)
Jesus
Father
Past
Occasionally Some Individuals Let The Seeming Ordinariness Of Life Dampen Their Spirits. Though Actually Coping And Growning, Others Lack The Quiet, Inner-soul Satisfaction That Can Steady Them, And Are Experiencing Instead, A Lingering Sense That There Is Something More Important They Should Be Doing . . .as If What Is Quietly Achieved In Righteous Individual Living Or In Parenthood Are Not Sufficiently Spectacular.
Soul
Important
Satisfaction
Though We Live In A Failing World, We Have Not Been Sent Here To Fail.
World
Failing
The Scriptures Offer Us So Many Doctrinal Diamonds. And When The Light Of The Spirit Plays Upon Their Several Facets, They Sparkle With Celestial Sense And Illuminate The Path We Are To Follow.
Light
Play
Scripture
It Is So Easy To Be Confrontive Without Being Informative; Indignant Without Being Intelligent; Impulsive Without Being Insightful.
Power
Intelligent
Insightful
The Lord Knows Our Bearing Capacity, Both As To Coping And To Comprehending, And He Will Not Give Us More To Bear Than We Can Manage At The Moment, Though To Us It May Seem Otherwise. Just As No Temptations Will Come To Us From Which We Cannot Escape Or Which We Cannot Bear, We Will Not Be Given More Trials Than We Can Sustain.
Giving
Justice
Temptation
Men And Women Of Christ Magnify Their Callings Without Magnifying Themselves.
Men
Calling
Christ
If We Entertain Temptations, Soon They Begin Entertaining Us!
Temptation
Entertaining
Ifs
If The Kingdom Of God Is Not First, It Doesn't Matter What's Second.
Kingdoms
Matter
Firsts
To One Degree Or Another We All Struggle With Selfishness. Since It Is So Common, Why Worry About Selfishness Anyway? Because Selfishness Is Really Self-destruction In Slow Motion. No Wonder The Prophet Joseph Smith Urged, "let Every Selfish Feeling Be Not Only Buried, But Annihilated" (teachings Of The Prophet Joseph Smith, P. 178). Hence Annihilation - Not Moderation - Is The Destination! . . . Meekness Is The Real Cure, For It Does Not Merely Mask Selfishness But Dissolves It!
Selfish
Real
Struggle
As Parenting Declines, The Need For Policing Increases. There Will Always Be A Shortage Of Police If There Is A Shortage Of Effective Parents! Likewise, There Will Not Be Enough Prisons If There Are Not Enough Good Homes.
Home
Parent
Police
Those Who Do Too Much For Their Children Will Soon Find They Can Do Nothing With Their Children. So Many Children Have Been So Much Done For They Are Almost Done In.
Children
Almost Done
Too Much
The Mortal Experience . . . Is Not Like A College Course Which We Can Passively Audit. Instead, We Are Taking Life's Course For Credit And There Are No Summers Off - Not Even Semester Breaks.
Life
Summer
College
A Good Friend, Who Knows Whereof He Speaks, Has Observed Of Trials, ‘if It’s Fair, It Is Not A True Trial!’ That Is, Without The Added Presence Of Some Inexplicableness And Some Irony And Injustice, The Experience May Not Stretch Us Or Lift Us Sufficiently. The Crucifixion Of Christ Was Clearly The Greatest Injustice In Human History, But The Savior Bore Up Under It With Majesty And Indescribable Valor.
Adversity
Good Friend
Crucifixion Of Christ
We Are Vulnerable If We Can Be Taken By A Wave Of Emotion, Invaded By An Invidious Impulse, Roughed Up By Resentment, Or Engulfed By A Surge Of Selfishness.
Selfish
Taken
Resentment
I Assume, Gladly, That In The Allocation To America Of Remarkable Leaders Like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, And Abraham Lincoln, The Lord Was Just As Careful. After All, If You've Got Only One Abraham Lincoln, You'd Better Put Him In That Point In History When He's Most Needed-much As Some Of Us Might Like To Have Him Now.
Leadership
America
Might
We Cannot Improve The World If We Are Conformed To The World.
Peer Pressure
World
Ifs
It Is One Of The Ironies Of Religious History That Many Mortals Err In Their Understanding Of The Nature Of God And End Up Rejecting Not The Real God But Their Own Erroneous And Stereotypical Image Of God. Frequently This Is Because They Have Thought Of God Solely In Terms Of Thunderings At Sinai Without Pondering Substance. . . .
Religious
Real
Understanding
Sometimes We Are So Busy Being The Hammer Or The Anvil, That We Forget Who Really Needs The Shaping.
Needs
Hammers
Anvils
Spent Time-like A Spent Bullet-tells Us Much About Its "processor." For We See Not Only The Residual Slug, But Indicators Of How Spent Time Is Grooved By A Man's Soul, A Reliable Indicator Of What A Man Is Like.
Time
Men
Soul
Mercy Can Purge The Soul Of Sin, Making Room For A Fresh Start. Truth Is Vital In Order That We Have An Unvarying Standard By Which To Determine What We Are To Be And To Do And What We Are To Rid Ourselves Of. All The Cardinal Virtues, Therefore, Carry Their Own Intrinsic As Well As Outward Reward. A Merciful Man Does Do Good To His Own Soul.
Men
Order
Soul
Listening Is One Of The Forms Of Love.
Listening
Form
Forms Of Love
Real Disciples Absorb The Fiery Darts Of The Adversary By Holding Aloft The Quenching Shield Of Faith With One Hand, While Holding To The Iron Rod With The Other (see Eph. 6:16; 1 Ne. 15:24; D&c 27:17). There Should Be No Mistaking; It Will Take Both Hands!
Real
Hands
Iron
The More Seriously We Work On Our Own Imperfections, The Less We Are Judgemental Of The Imperfections Of Others.
Imperfection
Judgemental
Missionary
The Authority Of Example And Considerations Of Character, Unlike Pudding, Are Not Whipped Up In An Instant.
Character
Example
Pudding
A Vague Goal Is No Goal At All. The Ten Commandments Wouldn't Be Very Impressive, For Instance, If They Weren't Specific, But Simply Were Couched In A Phraseology Such As 'thou Shalt Not Be A Bad Person.
Goal
Impressive
Ten Commandments
Long Ago When A Child Lay In A Manger, A Special Star Appeared. It Didn't Just Show Up That Evening. It Had To Have Been Placed In Its Orbit Centuries Before In A Trajectory That Would Make It Appear At That Special Moment Of Time To Announce The Birth Of A Special Child. Just As There Is Divine Design In The Universe, So Each Of Us Has Been Placed In Our Own Orbits In This Life To Love, To Serve, To Help Light The World.
Christmas
Stars
Children
Daily Hope Is Vital, Since The ‘winter Quarters’ Of Our Lives Are Not Immediately Adjacent To Our Promised Land Either. An Arduous Trek Still Awaits, But Hope Spurs Weary Disciples On.
Adversity
Winter
Land
Letting Off Steam Always Produces More Heat Than Light.
Anger
Light
Heat
A Society Which Permits Anything Will Eventually Lose Everything.
Permit
Loses
If We Are Not Serving Jesus, And If He Is Not In Our Thoughts And Hearts, Then The Things Of The World Will Draw Us Instead To Them! Moreover, The Things Of The World Need Not Be Sinister In Order To Be Diverting And Consuming.
Jesus
Heart
Order
Power Is Most Safe With Those Who Are Not In Love With It!
Safe
The Hardest Work You And I Will Ever Do Is To Put Off Our Selfishness. It Is Heavy Lifting!
Selfishness
Heavy
Hardest
By Seeing Life's Experiences On Through To The End, On Our Small Scale We Can Finally Say, As Jesus Did On The Cross, "it Is Finished". We Too Can Then Have "finished [our] Preparations," Having Done The Particular Work God Gave Each Of Us To Do.
Life
Jesus
Taken
Patience Helps Us To View Imperfections In Others More Generously To The End That We May Learn To Be More Wise Than They Have Been.
Wise
Learning
Views
A Few Little Flowers Will Spring Up Briefly In The Dry Gulley Through Which Torrents Of Water Pass Occasionally. But It Is Steady Streams That Bring Thick And Needed Crops. In The Agriculture Of The Soul That Has To Do With Nurturing Attributes, Flash Floods Are No Substitute For Regular Irrigation.
Spring
Flower
Agriculture
Those Few Members Who Desert The Cause Are Abandoning An Oasis To Search For Water In The Desert.
Oasis
Water
Desert
We Can't Dwell Upon Another's Ingratitude Without Using Up Our Time And Talents Unprofitably.
Time
Talent
Our Time
At The Center Of Our Agency Is Our Freedom To Form A Healthy Attitude Toward Whatever Circumstances We Are Placed In!
Freedom
Attitude
Adversity
Our Afflictions Brothers And Sisters Often Will Not Be Extinguished, They Will Be Dwarfed And Swallowed Up In The Joy Of Christ. That’s How We Overcome, Most Of The Time. It’s Not Their Elimination, But The Placing Of Them In That Larger Context.
Brother
Joy
Overcoming
Stubborn Selfishness Leads Otherwise Good People To Fight Over Herds, Patches Of Sand, And Strippings Of Milk. All This Results From What The Lord Calls Coveting "the Drop," While Neglecting The "more Weighty Matters." (d&c 117:8) Myopic Selfishness Magnifies A Mess Of Pottage And Makes Thirty Pieces Of Silver Look Like A Treasure Trove. In Our Intense Acquisitiveness, We Forget Him Who Once Said, "what Is Property Unto Me?"
Fighting
People
Selfishness
Eventually, There Will Not Be Enough Prisons If There Are Not Enough Good Homes.
Home
Prison
Enough
The Unwillingness Of Most Leaders To Set Standards, To Administer Feedback When Standards Are Not Met, To Praise Clearly When Standards Are Met, Stands In The Way Of The Development Of Excellence. The Leader Who Makes No Demands Of His Disciples Cannot Really Lead Them At All. The Sense Of New Excitement And New Challenge Generated By The Gospel Will Be Blunted By Leaders Who Shield Followers From The Full Demands Of Fellowship.
Leader
Challenges
Excellence
No "natural" Resource Is More Precious And To Be Used More Wisely Than Time. These Mortal Moments Matter More Than We Know. There Are No Idle Hours; There Are Only Idle People. In True Righteousness There Is Serenity, But There Is An Array Of Reminders That The "sacred Present" Is Packed With Possibilities Which Are Slipping By Us, Which Are Going Away From Us Each Moment.
People
Serenity
Balance
In A 'wheat And Tares' World, How Unusually Blessed Faithful Members Are To Have The Precious And Constant Gift Of The Holy Ghost With Reminders Of What Is Right And Of The Covenants We Have Made. 'for Behold, ... The Holy Ghost ... Will Show Unto You All Things What Ye Should Do.' (2 Ne. 32:5.) Whatever The Decibels Of Decadence, These Need Not Overwhelm The Still, Small Voice! Some Of The Best Sermons We Will Ever Hear Will Be Thus Prompted From The Pulpit Of Memory—to An Audience Of One!
Memories
Blessed
Voice
How Could There Be Refining Fires Without Our Enduring Some Heat?
Fire
Heat
Endure
While Most Of Our Suffering Is Self- Inflicted, Some Is Caused By Or Permitted By God. This Sobering Reality Calls For Deep Submissiveness, Especially When God Does Not Remove The Cup From Us. In Such Circumstances, When Reminded About The Premortal Shouting For Joy As This Life's Plan Was Unfolded (job 38:7), We Can Perhaps Be Pardoned If, In Some Moments, We Wonder What All The Shouting Was About.
Jobs
Reality
Self
A New Calling Can Beckon Us Away From Comfortable Routine And From Competencies Already Acquired.
Routine
Calling
Competencies
Just As Meekness Is In All Our Virtues, So Is Pride In All Our Sins. Whatever Its Momentary And Alluring Guise, Pride Is The Enemy, "the First Of The Sins." One Reason To Be Particularly On Guard Against Pride Is That "the Devilish Strategy Of Pride Is That It Attacks Us, Not In Our Weakest Points, But In Our Strongest. It Is Preeminently The Sin Of The Noble Mind." Not Only Of The Noble Mind, But Also Of The Semi-righteous.
Pride
Mind
Enemy
The Flame Of Family Can Warm Us And At The Same Time Be A Perpetual Pilot Light To Rekindle Us.
Light
Flames
Pilots
Even If Work Were Not An Economic Necessity, It Is A Spiritual Necessity.
Spiritual
Work
Economic
I Have On My Office Wall A Wise And Useful Reminder By Anne Morrow Lindbergh Concerning One Of The Realities Of Life. She Wrote, "my Life Cannot Implement In Action The Demands Of All The People To Whom My Heart Responds." That's Good Counsel For Us All, Not As An Excuse To Forgo Duty, But As A Sage Point About Pace And The Need For Quality In Relationships.
Wise
Wall
Heart
Understanding Quotes: Their Essence and Application

Quotes, or quotations, are powerful tools in communication, encapsulating ideas, emotions, and wisdom in concise expressions. They serve various purposes across different contexts, from academic writing to everyday conversation.

1. Defining Quotes

A quote is a repetition of someone else's statement or thoughts. It can be a direct replication of words spoken or written by another individual, often used to support arguments, provide evidence, or convey profound insights.


2. The Importance of Quotes

2.1. Enhancing Credibility

Incorporating quotes from authoritative sources can bolster the credibility of your work. By referencing experts or primary sources, you demonstrate thorough research and a solid foundation for your arguments.


2.2. Providing Evidence

Quotes serve as concrete evidence to support claims. In academic and professional writing, they validate points made, offering readers a basis to trust the information presented.


2.3. Conveying Emotions and Perspectives

Quotes can encapsulate emotions and perspectives succinctly. They allow writers to express complex feelings or viewpoints through the words of others, often more eloquently than paraphrasing.


3. Types of Quotes

3.1. Direct Quotes

Direct quotes involve copying the exact words from a source, enclosed in quotation marks. They are used when the original wording is significant or particularly well-expressed.


3.2. Indirect Quotes (Paraphrasing)

Indirect quotes restate the original message in your own words. While not enclosed in quotation marks, they still require proper attribution to the original source.


3.3. Block Quotes

Block quotes are lengthy direct quotations, formatted as a separate block of text. They are typically used for quotes exceeding a certain length, varying by citation style. For instance, in APA style, quotes longer than 40 words are formatted as block quotes.



4. Proper Usage of Quotes


4.1. Contextual Relevance

Ensure that the quote you choose is relevant to the topic and adds value to your content. Avoid inserting quotes solely for decorative purposes.


4.2. Integration into Your Writing

Seamlessly integrate quotes into your writing. Introduce them appropriately and follow up with analysis or commentary to connect them to your main points.


4.3. Attribution and Citation

Always attribute quotes to their original authors and provide proper citations according to the required style guide (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).


5. Common Mistakes to Avoid


5.1. Overusing Quotes

Relying too heavily on quotes can overshadow your voice. Use them sparingly to support your arguments, not replace them.


5.2. Lack of Analysis

Presenting a quote without analysis or explanation can leave readers questioning its relevance. Always follow up with your interpretation or discussion.


5.3. Misquoting or Taking Out of Context

Ensure that quotes are accurate and not taken out of context, as this can mislead readers and undermine your credibility.



6. Quotes in Different Contexts


6.1. Academic Writing

In academic writing, quotes are used to support arguments, provide evidence, and engage with existing literature. Proper citation is crucial to avoid plagiarism.


6.2. Journalism

Journalists use quotes to provide firsthand accounts, add authenticity, and present multiple perspectives within a story.


6.3. Literature and Creative Writing

In literature, quotes can be used to convey character voices, themes, and stylistic elements. They enrich narratives and provide depth to storytelling.



7. Punctuation and Formatting


Understanding the correct punctuation and formatting of quotes is essential:


Quotation Marks: Always enclose direct quotes within quotation marks.


Punctuation Placement: In American English, periods and commas are placed inside quotation marks, while colons and semicolons are placed outside.


Block Quotes: For longer quotes, format them as block quotes without quotation marks, and indent the entire block.



8. Ethical Considerations


Ethical use of quotes involves accurate representation, proper attribution, and respect for intellectual property. Misuse can lead to plagiarism, which carries serious academic and professional consequences.

9. Tools for Managing Quotes


Utilize tools like citation generators and plagiarism checkers to manage quotes effectively. These tools help ensure proper formatting and originality in your writing.



Conclusion


Quotes are invaluable in enriching content, providing evidence, and conveying complex ideas succinctly. When used appropriately, they enhance the quality and credibility of your writing. Always ensure relevance, proper integration, and ethical usage to maximize their impact.


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