wisdom | dear to the heart

I aim to make good use of my talents and my experience, if Providence have given me reason to boast of either one. I read, I study, I examine, I listen, I think, and out of all of that, I try to form an opinion into which I cram as much common sense as possible.

The Marquis de Lafayette, “To the Duc d’Ayen in Pennsylvania, December 16, 1777”

Letter in:

Lafayette in the Age of the American
Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers, 1776-1790. Ed. Stanley J. Idzerda.
Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1977, 194.

“Those who are most heavenly-minded are also of most earthly use. So then, accustom yourself to look first to the dreadful consequences of failure then fix your eye on the glorious prize which is before you; and when your strength begins to fail, when your spirits are well nigh exhausted, let the animating view rekindle your resolution, and call forth in renewed vigor the fainting energies of your soul.”

William Wilberforce

Reading

Alfred Joseph Woolmer, 1871

That I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Colossians 1:25-28