Twenty-six Thoughts

It is easy enough to dump out the contents of a basket or a bucket or a bowl or any other common container. But it is next. to impossible to empty the brain. There, thoughts refuse to let go and leave a vacuum.

If one thought does fade away, or if you kick it out, another swirls in to take its place. Sometimes, there are dozens of ideas coming thick and fast and tumbling all over each other. Always, when we’re conscious, we’re thinking something.

Here then are 26 thoughts, some familiar and time-honored, some new, some first suggested by famous people, others proposed by a plain nobody -- all for your brain’s pleasure:

ARMY The Army of the United States of America is a part of our lives. We are part of the Army and thus help to make it what it is.

BIBLE: To read this sacred book of Christianity, with its compilation of great histories, poems, stories, law books, rhapsodies and visions, is to fill the mind and heart with wonder.

CHRISTMAS DAY: Christmas Day is the best day of all the year.

DESPAIR: Despair is a darkness, to be chased away with three torches: Faith, Hope and Love.

EARTH: “Earth, with her thousand voices, praises God.” (Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1772-1834. English poet.)

FLOWERS: Flowers speak words even babes understand.

GOLD: “Gold’s father is dirt, yet it regards itself as noble.” (Yiddish Proverb)

HAPPINESS: A man’s happiness lies not in what he possesses; rather, it is in his ability to enjoy what comes.

INDULGENCE: “Those who love dainties are likely soon to be beggars.” (Benjamin Franklin)

JOY: It is far better to hold fast to the peace of years than to grasp for the rapture of moments.

KNOWLEDGE: A wise person realizes how little he knows.

LUCK: We all say there is no such thing as luck; yet we all believe in it.

MONEY:

“Never ask of money spent

Where the spender thinks it went.

Nobody was ever meant

To remember or invent

What he did with every cent.” (Robert Lee Frost)

NAME: “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.” (Proverbs 22:1, KJV)

ORIGINALITY: If you would be something, you must create something.

PATIENCE: A Chinese proverb has it that patience is power.

‘‘With time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes silk.”

QUALITY: “I think there is only one quality worse than hardness of heart and that is softness of head.” (Theodore Roosevelt)

RESPECT: We can respect the opinions of others even if we disagree with them.

SECRECY: “There is a skeleton in every house.” (Anonymous)

TRUST: To be trusted is almost as great a compliment as to be loved.

UGLINESS: If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so is ugliness.

VIGILANCE: “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” (Thomas Jefferson)

WIFE: To be an ideal wife it is necessary to have an ideal husband.

XANTHIPPE The wife of Socrates, Xanthippe (zan-TIP-e) was said to be a shrewish and scolding woman, not one to be imitated.

YOUTH Hold on to the dreams of your youth.

ZEAL: Should we not cultivate a true zeal for life and love and mercy and goodness!

Sort out these 26 thoughts. Toss out the ones you don’t like. Add others you cherish. For as you think, so you are.

Published November 1984. Pres your browser’s “Back” key to return.