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The Bible teaches that both God is in control and that people make realchoices. These two truths go side by side throughout the Scriptures. TheBible absolutely does not teach fatalism. But neither does it teach that people are absolutely free and autonomous. The effects of the Fall and our very natures restrain us. This is called an antinomy. That is (per the American Heritage Dictionary) "A contradiction between principles or conclusions that seem equally necessary and reasonable." Mike Walbert ![]() Moshe Waldoks A sense of humor can help you overlook the unattractive, tolerate the unpleasant, cope with the unexpected, and smile through the unbearable. -Moshe Waldoks ![]() Ni'matullah Wali (1331-1431?) I perceive all the professors of exoteric knowledge to be full of learning with no application - Day and night wasting their lives, pursuing discussion, chatter, and empty disputation.-- Ni'matullah Wali (1331-1431?) ![]() Percy Walker We love those who know the worst of us and don't turn their faces away. - Percy Walker ![]() Kelly Catlin Walker Never let the urgent crowd out the important... Kelly Catlin Walker ![]() William Waller Whilst he Cromwell) was curious of his own words, (not putting forth too many lest they should betray his thoughts) he made others talk until he had, as it were, sifted them, and known their most intimate designs. - Sir William Waller, Recollections. ![]() Johan Olof Wallin (1770-1839) Jerusalem, lift up thy voice! ![]() C.F.W. Walther Inactivity is the beginning of all vice. - C.F.W. Walther , letter: 15 Jan 1873 ![]() Natasha Walter Women who complain that [she] was not a feminist because she didn't help other women or openly acknowledge her debt to feminism have a point, but they are also missing something vital. She normalised female success... No one can ever question whether women are capable of single-minded vigour, of efficient leadership, after Margaret Thatcher. She is the great unsung heroine of British feminism.~Natasha Walter, The New Feminism ![]() Barbara Walters (1931-____) [Being a parent] is tough. If you just want a wonderful little creature to love, you can get a puppy.Barbara Walters (1931-____) In "Words of Women Quotations for Success," by Power Dynamics Publishing, 1997. ![]() J. Donald Walters Happiness is an attitude of mind, born of the simple determination to be happy under all outward circumstances.... J. Donald Walters ![]() Izaak Walton (1593-1683) God has two dwellings: one in heaven, and the other in a meek and thankful heart. --Izaak Walton (1593-1683) That which is everybody's business is nobody's business. Izaak Walton (1593-1683) Look to your health; and if you have it, praise God, and value it next to a good conscience; for health is the second blessing that we mortals are capable of; a blessing that money cannot buy. --Izaak Walton (1593-1683) _The Compleat Angler_ [1653-1655], Chapter 21 We may say of angling, as Dr. Boteler said of strawberries, 'Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did.' Izaak Walton (1593-1683) ![]() William H. Walton To carry a grudge is like being stung to death by one bee. William H. Walton ![]() William Warburton (1698 &endash; 1779) Othodoxy is my doxy; heterodoxy is another man's doxy. William Warburton (1698 &endash; 1779) ![]() Arthur Ward, The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.-- ARTHUR WARD ![]() William Arthur Ward Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. William Arthur Ward ![]() William W. Ward The price of excellence is discipline.The cost of mediocrity is disappointment.-William W. Ward ![]() B B Warfield A firm faith in the universal providence of God is the solution of all earthly problems. It is almost equally true that a clear and full apprehension of the universal providence of God is the solution of most theological problems. B. B. WARFIELD If criticism has made such discoveries as to necessitate the abandonment of the doctrine of plenary inspiration, it is not enough to say that we are compelled to abandon only a "particular theory of inspiration..." We must go on to say that that "particular theory of inspiration" is the theory of the apostles and of the Lord, and that in abandoning it we are abandoning them.... B. B. Warfield (1851-1921), The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible [1948] We can never know that we are elected of God to eternal life except by manifesting in our lives the fruits of election.--B. B. WARFIELD The marvel of marvels is not that God, in his infinite love, has not elected all this guilty race to be saved, but that he has elected any. --B. B.WARFIELD It is never on account of its formal nature as a psychic act that faith is conceived in Scripture to be saving...It is not, strictly speaking, even faith in Christ that saves, but Christ that saves through faith. The saving power resides exclusively, not in the act of faith or the attitude of faith or nature of faith, but in the object of faith. B. B. WARFIELD ![]() Anthony Warner When the church is unified and the Lord is glorified, then the saints will be edified, sinners will be sanctified, and the devil will be terrified. --Anthony Warner ![]() Charles Dudley Warner The excellence of a gift lies in its appropriateness rather than in its value.-- Charles Dudley Warner ![]() Christi Mary Warner A true friend is one who knows all about you and likes you anyway. Christi Mary Warner ![]() Earl Warren (1891 - 1974) I always turn to the sports pages first, which records people's accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man's failures. - Earl Warren, 1891 - 1974 ![]() Booker T. Washington (1856 &endash; 1915) Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him and to let him know that you trust him. --Booker T. Washington ![]() George Washington (1732-1799) Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder. -George Washington Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.--George Washington Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. Washington The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing is a vice so mean and low, that every person of sense and character detests and despises it.--George Washington Worry, the interest paid by those who borrow trouble. -- George Washington (1732-1799) The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on
a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and
right which Heaven itself has ordained. Almighty God, we make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy holy protection; that Thou wilt incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government.--- George Washington, prayer after his first inauguration I know of no pursuit in which more real and important services can be rendered to any country than by improving its agriculture, its breed of useful animals, and other branches of a husbandman's cares.- George Washington (1732-99), U.S. general, president. Letter, 20 July 1794. ![]() Martha Washington (1732 &endash; 1802) The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our disposition and not our circumstances. -- Martha Washington ![]() William C. Waterhouse I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live,
the more convincing proofs I see of this truth--that God
governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall
to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an
empire can rise without his aid? --Benjamin Franklin,
debates in the Constitutional Convention, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, June 28, 1787.&emdash;James Madison, Journal
of the Federal Convention, ed. E. H. Scott ![]() Lillian Eichler Watson There has never been an age that did not applaud the past and lament the present. --Lillian Eichler Watson _Light From Many Lamps_ ![]() Lyall Watson If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn't. -- Lyall Watson ![]() Thomas Watson Afflictions add to the saints' glory. The more the diamond is cut, the more it sparkles; the heavier the saints' cross is, the heavier will be their crown. - THOMAS WATSON If you will have the teachings of Christ, walk according to the knowledge you have already. Use your little knowledge well, and Christ will teach you more. 'If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself.' John 7:17 -THOMAS WATSON Oh, Christians, look to your steps! When you have prayed against sin, then watch against temptation. Such as are more excellent than others, God expects some singular thing from them. They should bring more glory to God and, by their exemplary piety, make proselytes to religion. Better fruit is expected from a vineyard than from a wild forest. - THOMAS WATSON Affliction may be lasting, but it is not everlasting.-Thomas Watson All the danger is when the world gets into the heart. The water is useful for sailing the ship; all the danger is when the water gets into the ship; so the fear is when the world gets into the heart. --THOMAS WATSON Behold, what manner of love is this, that Christ should be arraigned and we adorned, that the curse should be laid on His head and the crown set on ours. THOMAS WATSON Christ heals with more ease than any other. Christ makes the devil go out with a word (Mark 9:25). Nay, he can cure with a look: Christ's look melted Peter into repentance; it was a healing look. If Christ doth but cast a look upon the soul he can recover it. Therefore David prays to have a look from God, 'Look Thou upon me, and be merciful unto me' (Psalm 119:132). THOMAS WATSON Christ is the most bountiful physician. Other patients do enrich their physicians, but here the physician doth enrich the patient. Christ elevates all his patients: he doth not only cure them but crown them (Rev. 2:10). Christ doth not only raise them from the bed, but to the throne; he gives the sick man not only health but also heaven. THOMAS WATSON Christ is the most cheap physician, he takes no fee. He desires us to bring nothing to him but broken hearts; and when he has cured us he desires us to bestow nothing on him but our love. THOMAS WATSON Christ is the most tender-hearted physician. He hath ended his passion but not his compassion. He is not more full of skill than sympathy, 'He healed the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds' (Psalm 147:3). Every groan of the patient goes to the heart of the physician. THOMAS WATSON Christ never fails of success. Christ never undertakes to heal any but he makes a certain cure, 'Those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost,' (John 17:12). Other physicians can only cure them that are sick, but Christ cures them that are dead, 'And you hat he quickened who were dead' (Eph 2:1). Christ is a physician for the dead, of every one whom Christ cures, it may be said, 'He was dead, and is alive again' (Luke 15:32). - THOMAS WATSON Christ's blood has value enough to redeem the whole world, but the virtue of it is applied only to such as believe. THOMAS WATSON Covetousness is dry drunkeness. - THOMAS WATSON [Concerning the Word preached:] "Do we prize it in our judgments? Do we receive in into our hearts? Do we fear the loss of the Word preached more than the loss of peace and trade? Is it the removal of the ark that troubles us? Again, do we attend to the Word with reverential devotion? When the judge is giving the charge on the bench, all attend. When the Word is preached, the great God is giving us his charge. Do we listen to it as to a matter of life and death? This is a good sign that we love the Word. - THOMAS WATSON Doth God give us a Christ, and will he deny us a crust? If God doth not give us what we crave, He will give us what we need. -- THOMAS WATSON Eternity to the godly is a day that has no sunset; eternity to the wicked is a night that has no sunrise. -- THOMAS WATSON Faith lives in a broken heart. 'He cried out with tears, Lord, I believe.' True faith is always in a heart bruised for sin. They, therefore, whose hearts were never touched for sin, have no faith. If a physician should tell us there was a herb that would help us against all infections, but it always grows in a watery place; if we should see a herb like it in colour, leaf, smell, blossom, but growing upon a rock, we should conclude that it was the wrong herb. So saving faith always grows in a heart humbled for sin, in a weeping eye and a tearful conscience. - THOMAS WATSON God does not choose us for faith but to faith. --THOMAS WATSON God has given us two ears, but one tongue, to show that we should be swift to hear, but slow to speak. God has set a double fence before the tongue, the teeth and the lips, to teach us to be wary that we offend not with our tongue.- Thomas Watson God keeps open house for hungry sinners - THOMAS WATSON God made man of the dust of the earth and man makes a god of the dust of the earth. THOMAS WATSON God keeps open house for hungry sinners (Isa. 45:1,2). - THOMAS WATSON Godliness is glory in the seed, and glory is godliness in the flower. - THOMAS WATSON How soon are we broken on the soft pillow of ease! Adam in paradise was overcome, when Job on the dunghill was a conqueror. - THOMAS WATSON If a wicked man seems to have peace at death, it is not
from the knowledge of his happiness, but from the ingnorance
of his danger. If God be our God, He will give us peace in trouble. When there is a storm without, He will make peace within. The world can create trouble in peace, but God can create peace in trouble -- THOMAS WATSON Immoderate care takes the heart off from better things; and usually while we are thinking how we shall do to live, we forget how to die. We may sooner by our care add a furlong to our grief, than a foot to our comfort. THOMAS WATSON Jesus Christ was more willing to go to the cross, than we are to the throne of grace. Thomas Watson Justification is the very hinge and pillar of Christianity. An error about justification is dangerous, like a defect in a foundation. Justification by Christ is a spring of the water of life. To have the poison of corrupt doctrine cast into this spring is damnable. THOMAS WATSON Knowledge without repentance will be but a torch to light men to hell. THOMAS WATSON Let them fear death who do not fear sin.--THOMAS WATSON Man is born to trouble" He is heir apparent to it; he comes into the world with a cry, and goes out with a groan. -Thomas Watson Many a man's knowledge is a torch to light him to hell. Thou who hast knowledge of God's will, but doth not do it, wherein dost thou excel the devil, 'who transforms himself into an angel of light.'-THOMAS WATSON None so empty of grace as he that thinks he is full. - THOMAS WATSON Praising God is one of the highest and purest acts of religion. In prayer we act like men; in praise we act like angels. -- THOMAS WATSON Repentance is a grace of God's Spirit whereby a sinner is inwardly humbled and visibly reformed. -- THOMAS WATSON Sanctification is a supernatural thing; it is divinely infused. We are naturally polluted, and to cleanse, God takes to be his prerogative...Sanctification is a flower of the Spirit's planting. Thomas Watson Sin hath the devil for its father, shame for its companion, and death for its wages. --THOMAS WATSON That which cannot quiet the heart in a storm, cannot entitle a man to blessedness; earthly things accumulated, cannot rock the troubled heart quiet, therefore cannot make one blessed. When Saul was sore distressed, could all the jewels of his crown comfort him? 'They shall cast their silver in the streets...their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord.' (Ezek. 7:19) --THOMAS WATSON The bare knowledge of God's will is inefficacious, it doth not better the heart. Knowledge alone is like a winter sun, which hath no heat or influence; it doth not warm the affections, or purify the conscience. Judas was a great luminary, he knew God's will, but he was a traitor.- THOMAS WATSON The godly have some good in them, therefore the devil afflicts them; and some evil in them, therefore God afflicts them. THOMAS WATSON The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,....neither can he know them' (1 Cor. 2:14). He may have more insight into the things of the world than a believer, but he does not see the deep things of God. A swine may see an acorn under a tree, but he cannot see a star. - THOMAS WATSON The vessels of mercy are first seasoned with affliction, and then the wine of glory is poured in. Thus we see afflictions are but beneficial to the saints. Thomas Watson The world rings changes, it is never constant but in its disappointments. The world is but a great inn, where we are to stay a night or two, and be gone; what madness is it so to set our heart upon our inn, as to forget our home?THOMAS WATSON There is more evil in a drop of sin, than in a sea of affliction.-Thomas Watson Though we as Christians are like Christ, having the first fruits of the Spirit, yet we are unlike Him, having the remainders of the flesh. THOMAS WATSON We need not climb into heaven to see whether our sins are forgiven; let us look into our hearts, and see if we can forgive others. If we can, we need not doubt but God has forgiven us - Thomas Watson What fools are they who, for a drop of pleasure, drink a sea of wrath. - THOMAS WATSON What if we have more of the rough file, if we have less
rust! Afflictions carry away nothing but the dross of
sin. When God calls a man, He does not repent of it. God does not, as many friends do, love one day, and hate another; or a princes, who make their subjects favourites, and afterwards throw them into prison. This is the blessedness of a saint; his condition admits of no alteration. God's call is founded on His decree, and His decree is immutable. Acts of grace cannot be reversed. God blots out his people's sins, but not their names. THOMAS WATSON When God lays men upon their backs, then they look up to heaven. -Thomas Watson When sin is your burden, Christ will be your delight. --THOMAS WATSON When the judge is giving the charge on the bench, all attend. When the Word is preached, the great God is giving us his charge. Do we listen to it as to a matter of life and death? This is a good sign that we love the Word. THOMAS WATSON Whoever brings an affliction, it is God that sends it.-Thomas Watson Whom he predestinated, them he also called'. Election is the foundation-cause of our vocation. It is not because some are more worthy to partake of the heavenly calling than others, for we were 'all in our blood' (Ezek. 16:6). What worthiness is in us? What worthiness was there in Mary Magdelene, out of whom seven devils were cast? What worthiness in the Corinthians, when God began to call them by the gospel? They were fornicators, effeminate, idolaters. 'Such were some of you, but ye are washed'. Before effectual calling, we were not only without strength, but 'enemies' (Col. 1:21). So that the foundation of vocation is election. -- THOMAS WATSON ![]() David Watsonerb If we see a speck in a brother's eye, we must first see if there is a log in our own eye; perhaps that speck in our brother's eye is only a reflection of the beam in our own. ... David Watsonerb ![]() Bill Watterson There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want. --Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes It's not denial. I'm just very selective about what I accept as reality. -- Bill Watterson, "Calvin and Hobbes" Oh, great altar of passive entertainment, bestow upon me thy discordant images at such speed as to render linear thought impossible! - Bill Watterson I know the world isn't fair, but why isn't it ever unfair in my favor?~Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes) After today, I'll bet Santa takes a shovel to the
reindeer stalls to fill your stocking. Isaac Watts (1674-1748) Shine, mighty God, on Britain shine, Amidst our isle, exalted high, When shall thy name, from shore to shore, Sing to the Lord, ye distant lands, He, the great Lord, the sovereign Judge, Earth shall obey her Maker's will, God the Redeemer scatters round The King of glory sends his Son, Civilization--and by this I do not mean talking cinemas and tinned food, nor even surgery and hygienic houses, but the whole moral and artistic organization of Europe--has not in itself the power of survival. It came into being through Christianity, and without it has no significance or power to command allegiance. . . . It is no longer possible, as it was in the time of Gibbon, to accept the benefits of civilization and at the same time deny the supernatural basis on which it rests. . . . Christianity . . . is in greater need of combative strength than it has been for centuries.-- Evelyn Waugh, 1930 Punctuality is the virtue of the bored. - Evelyn Waugh ![]() John Wayne (1907-1979) Courage is being scared to death -- and saddling up anyway. --John Wayne (1907-1979) Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes in to us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and puts itself into our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday. -John Wayne I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves. --John Wayne Women have the right to work wherever they want, as long as they have the dinner ready when you get home-- Attributed to John Wayne I stick to simple themes. Love. Hate. No nuances. I stay away from psychoanalyst's couch scenes. Couches are good for one thing. John Wayne (1907-1979) In "Reader's Digest," 1 Sep 1970. ![]() Beatrice Webb At the end of a happy marriage to Sidney Hook, Beatrice Webb was asked, "Why was your marriage so happy?" She said, "Sidney takes all the long-term decisions, I take all the unimportant decisions, and I determine which are the long-term decisions." - Beatrice Webb ![]() Mary Webb If you stop to be kind, you must swerve often from your path. Mary Webb ![]() Daniel Webster 1782-1852. [I]f we and our posterity reject religious instruction and authority, violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions of morality, and recklessly destroy the political constitution which holds us together, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us, that shall bury all our glory in profound obscurity. --Daniel Webster A future separation of the American tongue from the English was necessary and unavoidable.... Numerous local causes, such as a new country, new associations of people, new combinations of ideas in arts and sciences, and some intercourse with tribes wholly unknown in Europe, will introduce new words into the American tongue. These causes will produce, in a course of time, a language in North America as different from the future language of England as the modern Dutch, Danish and Swedish are from the German, or from one another. ~Noah Webster, Dissertations on the English Language (1789) Liberty exists in proportion to wholesome restraint. God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are
always ready to guard and defend it. Inconsistencies of opinion, arising from changes of
circumstances, are often justifiable. Falsehoods not only disagree with truths, but usually quarrel among themselves. --Daniel Webster ![]() John Webster (1580-1625) Is not old wine wholesomest, old pippins toothsomest, old wood burns brightest, old linen wash whitest, soldiers, sweetheart, are surest, and old lovers are soundest. John Webster: Westward Hoe, act ii. sc. 2. Cover her face, I saw him even now going the way of all flesh, that is to say towards the kitchen. - John Webster ![]() Noah Webster (1758 &endash; 1843) All government originates in families, and if neglected there, it will hardly exist in society...The foundation of all free government and of all social order must be laid in families and in the discipline of youth. Noah Webster ![]() Walter Weckler Revenge has no more quenching effect on emotions than salt water has on thirst. -Walter Weckler ![]() Elizabeth Weeks (1881-1950) A kiss from a man without a moustache is like lamb without mint sauce. -Elizabeth Weeks 1881-1950 (not her's originally I am sure but Grandma used to say this) ![]() George Weigel The Catholic crisis of 2002 is also a powerful reminder of the Iron Law of Christianity and Modernity: Christian communities that maintain their doctrinal identity and moral boundaries flourish in the modern world; Christian communities that fudge doctrine and morals decay. Contrary to much popular wisdom, the Christian movement is flourishing throughout the world. And in all instances, without exception, it is the Christian communities that eschew Lite approaches to doctrine and morals that are growing. -- George Weigel, _The Courage to be Catholic_, 2002 Christian communities that maintain their doctrinal identity and moral boundaries flourish in the modern world; Christian communities that fudge doctrine and morals decay. Contrary to much popular wisdom, the Christian movement is flourishing throughout the world. And in all instances, without exception, it is the Christian communities that eschew Lite approaches to doctrine and morals that are growing. ---- George Weigel, _The Courage to be Catholic_, 2002 What is most disturbing, for example, about the bizarre debate over the mere mention of Christianity's contributions to European civilization in the proposed European Constitution is that the amnesiacs who wish to rewrite European history by eliminating Christianity from the historical equation are doing so in service to a thin, indeed anorexic, idea of procedural democracy. To deny that Christianity had anything to do with the evolution of free, law-governed, and prosperous European societies is more than a question of falsifying the past; it is also a matter of creating a future in which moral truth has no role in governance, in the determination of public policy, in understandings of justice, and in the definition of that freedom which democracy is intended to embody. - George Weigel, First Things, Feb 2004 ![]() Simone Weil Imaginary evil is romantic and varied, full of charm; imaginary good is tiresome and flat. Real evil, however, is dreary, monotonous, barren. Real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating. -- Simone Weil ![]() Len Wein A true friend is someone who is there for you when he'd rather be anywhere else.--- Len Wein ![]() Jack Weinberg We have a saying in the movement that we don't trust anybody over thirty.--Jack Weinberg (1940- ) (1964 interview) ![]() Matt Weinhold When I'm around hard-core computer geeks, I want to say, 'Come outside -- the graphics are great!' - Matt Weinhold, ![]() John Welch Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.~ John Welch ![]() Orson Welles (1915 &endash; 1985) My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people. Orson Welles ![]() Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852) Being born in a stable does not make one a horse.-- The Duke of Wellington, when referred to as Irish Educate men without religion and you make of them but clever devils. --Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852) Publish and be damned. (when being blackmailed) --Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852) Sparrowhawks, Ma'am. --Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852) (attrib. remark to Q. Victoria on how to remove birds from the newly built Crystal Palace) I don't know what effect these men will have on the enemy, but by God, they frighten me.--Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852)(attrib.) [of the British army, 1831] Ours is composed of the scum of the earth. --Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852) I always say that, next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained.--Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852) ![]() A. F. Wells Take Christ out of Christmas, and December becomes the bleakest and most colorless month of the year.--A. F. Wells ![]() H G Wells (1866 &endash; 1946) I want to go ahead of Father Time with a scythe of my own. -- H G Wells Stop this Progress! --Theotocopulos in the H. G. Wells movie _Things to Come_ Science is a match that man has just got alight. He
thought he was in a room -- in moments of devotion, a temple
-- and that his light would be reflected from and display
walls inscribed with wonderful secrets and pillars carved
with philosophical systems wrought into harmony. It is a
curious sensation, now that the preliminary splutter is over
and the flame burns up clear, to see his hands and just a
glimpse of himself and the patch he stands on visible, and
around him, in place of all that human comfort and beauty he
anticipated -- darkness still. I must confess that my imagination, in spite even of spurring, refuses to see any sort of submarine doing anything but suffocating its crew and floundering at sea.~ H. G. Wells, _Anticipations_, 1901 ![]() David Wells God's people have no assurances that the dark experiences of life will be held at bay, much less that God will provide some sort of running commentary on the meaning of each day's allotment of confusion, boredom, pain, or achievement.-- David Wells Our generation is rapidly growing deaf to the summons of
the external God. He has been so internalised, so tamed by
the needs of religious commerce, so submerged beneath the
traffic of modern psychological need that he has almost
completely disappeared. All too often, he now leans weakly
upon the church, a passive bystander, a co-conspirator in
the effort to dismantle two thousand years of Christian
thought about God and what he has declared himself to be.
That is to say, God has become weightless. The church
continues its business of satisfying the needs of the
self--needs defined by the individual--and God, who is
himself viewed and marketed as a product, becomes powerless
to change the definition of that need or to prescribe the
means by which it might be satisfied. When the consumer is
sovereign, the product (in this case God himself) must be
subservient. By this late date, evangelicals should be hungering for a genuine revival of the church, aching to see it once again become a place of seriousness where a vivid otherworldliness is cultivated because the world is understood in deeper and truer ways, where worship is stripped of everything extraneous, where God's Word is heard afresh, where the desolate and broken can find sanctuary. Why, then, are they not more serious in their efforts to recover the true church? It is because virtually everything within them and around them militates against it. Cultural pressures and influences are so intrusive and inwardly destabilising that Christian spirituality becomes a forlorn pursuit unless the individual is embodied in a structure that gives corporate expression to private spirituality, in which the lone thread is woven into a fabric. Many churches have not learned the lessons that most parents stumble on sooner or later. Churches imagine that the less they ask or expect of believers, the more popular they will become and the more contented worshippers will be. The reverse is true. Those who ask little find that the little they ask is resented or resisted; those who ask much find that they are given much and strengthened by the giving. --David Wells, God in the Wasteland- The Reality of Truth in a World of Fading Dreams, PG. 225, 226. The present always needs to be deprived of its pretensions to being the most elevated moment in the story of the human spirit (or, as some charismatics would have it, the most dramatic), for this opens wide the door to pride and folly.-- David F. Wells No Place For Truth, p. 100 We are called to see that the Church does not adapt its
thinking to the horizons that modernity prescribes for it
but rather that it brings to those horizons the powerful
antidote of God's truth. It is not the Word of God but
rather modernity that stands in need of being
demythologised. ![]() Charles Wesley (1707-1788)
![]() John Wesley (1703-1791) Chance has no share in the government of the world. The Lord reigns, and disposes all things, strongly and sweetly, for the good of them that love him. -- John Wesley , letter Tell me how it is that in this room there are three candles and but one light; and I will explain to you the mode of the divine existence. John Wesley Oh, beware! Do not seek to be something! Let me be nothing, and Christ be all in all.- John Wesley God...frequently...makes young men and women wiser than the aged, and gives to many, in a very short time, a closer and deeper communion with himself than others attain in a long course of years.-John Wesley ,letter: , 27 Dec 1774 Unless God has raised you up for this very thing [ablishing slave trade trading] you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be with you who can be against you. JOHN WESLEY, letter to William Wilberforce 10 days before Wesley's death Passion and prejudice govern the world; only under the name of reason.--John Wesley, Letter to Joseph Benson, October 5, 1770 Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can. - John Wesley It is most desirable, to have neither poverty nor riches; but still you cannot be without temptation, unless you would go out of the world.- John Wesley, letter: DECEMBER 1, 177 I rode over the mountains to Huddersfield. A wilder people I never saw in England. The men, women and children filled the streets and seemed just ready to devour us. John Wesley June 1757 The longer I live, the larger allowances I make for human infirmities. --John Wesley (1703-1791) Letter, 21 Feb 1756 to Samuel Furley. I desired as many as could to join together in fasting and prayer, that God would restore the spirit of love and of a sound mind to the poor deluded rebels in America. -- John Wesley, Journal, Aug 1, 1777 I am a creature of a day. I am a spirit come from God, and returning to God. I want to know one thing: the way to heaven. God himself has condescended to teach me the way. He has written it down in a book. Oh, give me that book! At any price give me the book of God. Let me be a man of one book. JOHN WESLEY Beware that you are not swallowed up in books! An ounce
of love is worth a pound of knowledge. I look on all the world as my parish; thus far I mean, that, in whatever part of it I am, I judge it meet, right, and my bounden duty, to declare unto all that are willing to hear, the glad tidings of salvation. -- John Wesley (1703-1791) Lord, I am no longer my own, but Yours. Put me to what You will, rank me with whom You will. Let be employed by You or laid aside for You, exalted for You or brought low by You. Let me have all things, let me have nothing, I freely and heartily yield all things to Your pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, You are mine and I am Yours. So be it. Amen.J--John Wesley Immediately it stuck into my mind, "Leave off preaching. How can you preach to others, who have not faith yourself?" I asked Boehler, whether he thought I should leave it off or not. He answered "By no means." I asked, "But what can I preach?" He said, "Preach faith till you have it; and then, because you have it, you will preach faith." -- John Wesley, Journal, 4 Mar 1738 Many Gentlemen have done my brother and me (though
without naming us) the honour to reprint many of our hymns.
Now they are perfectly welcome to do so, provided they print
them just as they are. But I desire that they would not
attempt to mend them - for they really are not able. None of
them is able to mend either the sense or the verse.
Therefore I must beg the one of these two favours: either to
let them stand just as they are, to take them for better for
worse; or to add the true reading in the margin, or at the
bottom of the page; that we may no longer be accountable
either for the nonsense or doggerel of other men. When I was young I was sure of everything; in a few years, having been mistaken a thousand times, I was not half so sure of most things as I was before; at present, I am hardly sure of anything but what God has revealed to me. John Wesley Wherever riches have increased, the essence of religion has decreased in the same proportion. Therefore I do not see how it is possible in the nature of things for any revival of religion to continue long. For religion must necessarily produce both industry and frugality, and these cannot but produce riches. But as riches increase, so will pride, anger, and love of the world in all its branches. John Wesley No one can truly say that Jesus is Lord, unless Thou take
the veil away, and breathe the living word. Then only then,
we feel our interest in His blood. You have now such faith as is necessary for your living
unto God. As yet you are not called to die. When you are,
you shall have faith for this also. When the witness and the fruit of the Spirit meet together, there can be no stronger proof that we are of God.-- John Wesley , letter: 31 March 1787 Suffer all, and conquer all.... John Wesley (1703-1791) When you set yourself on fire, people love to come and see you burn~ John Wesley Every one, though born of God in an instant, yet undoubtedly grows by slow degrees.'- John Wesley letter: 27 June 1760 The longer I live, the larger allowances I make for human infirmities.-John Wesley(1703-1791) Let me do all the good I can, to all the people I can, as often as I can, for I shall not pass this way again. - John Wesley in David Jackman, The Communicators Commentary, Ruth1. ![]() Jessamyn West We want the facts to fit the preconceptions. When they don't, it is easier to ignore the facts than to change the preconceptions. Jessamyn West ![]() Jim West When the pilgrims, seeking religious freedom, landed at
Plymouth rock, the first permanent building put up was the
brewery. ![]() Mae West Love conquers all things except poverty and toothache -- Mae West When women go wrong, men go right after them. Mae West I used to be Snow White...but I drifted.-- Mae West (1892-1980), quoted in "Peel Me a Grape"(1975) Say what you want about long dresses, but they cover a multitude of shins. Mae West Between two evils, I always like to take the one I've never tried before. --Mae West Too much of a good thing is WONDERFUL. Mae West Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly -- Mae West ![]() Brooke Foss Westcott Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they simply unveil them to the eyes of men. Silently and imperceptibly, as we wake or sleep, we grow strong or weak; and at last some crisis shows what we have become.- Brooke Foss Westcott ![]() Todd H. Wetzel Like many of the leaders and teacher [in the church], perhaps I failed to prepare people for the way of suffering. I had not suffered much myself and did not help people to be ready for it. But the fact is: when you follow Jesus, what happened to Him happens to you.... Todd H. Wetzel, Steadfast Faith [1997 ![]() Edith Wharton (1862 &endash; 1937) An education is like a crumbling building that needs constant upkeep with repairs and additions. Edith Wharton There are two ways of spreading light: to be The candle or the mirror that reflects it. ~Edith Wharton, "Vesalius in Zante", Artemis to Actaeon (1909) ![]() Sam Wheatley I learned the "Clowney Triangle" when I was at
Westminster Seminary. Essentially, it's a Hermenutical grid
&endash; "How do I understand the text in front of me?" ![]() Benjamin Whichcote Christ is God clothed with human nature. -- Benjamin Whichcote Expect no greater happiness in Eternity, than to rejoice in God. --Benjamin Whichcote ![]() James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) You shouldn't say it is not good. You should say you do not like it; and then, you know, you're perfectly safe.James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) In "Whistler Stories," by D. C. Seitz, 1913 Two and two continue to make four, in spite of the whine of the amateur for three, or the cry of the critic for five &endash; James Whistler To say to the painter that Nature is to be taken as she is, is to say to the player that he may sit on the piano. James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) If the man who paints only the tree, or flower, or other surface he sees before him were an artist, the king of artists would be the photographer. It is for the artist to do something beyond this.James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) "The Gentle Art of Making Enemies," "Propositions," 1890. ![]() E. B. White (1899-1985) To perceive Christmas through it`s wrapping becomes more difficult every year. -- E. B. White (The second tree from the corner) Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one. -- E. B. White (1899-1985) "Lime," 1944. Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it.- E. B. White ![]() J. Gustav White Our faith and our friendships are not shattered by one big act, but by many small neglects.... J. Gustav White ![]() John White There are no shortcuts to holiness. There is no easy way to conquer the flesh. Christian character is a matter of growth, not of secrets or formulas. Growth takes time. It also takes the discipline of prayer, of study, of heart searching, of sensitivity to the Holy Ghost's pleading, and of consistent obedience. It must always begin with a renewed thankfulness for the never-ending grace of God, and a sense of being set free repeatedly to a life of holiness.-- John White True non-judgementalism is a logical impossibility. To forbid or exclude a value judgement is to assume, unconsciously, that the highest value is to have no values.-- John White Evil indulged in eventually becomes evil that controls us.-- John White Faith is not a feeling. It is not even the feeling that something is going to happen in answer to our prayers. Faith may be easier to exercise when such feelings are present. Nevertheless, feelings of that sort never constitute faith. Faith is a response on our part, the obedient response of our wills to who God is and what He says.-- John White Recognise that peace and forgiveness do not depend on feelings of piety but on Christ and on what He has done. John White Our aim is not "success" the way the world measures it but to please Christ by the way you tackle even work. Work is an act of worship to a Saviour.-- John White ![]() Paul Dudley White A vigorous five mile walk will do more good for an unhappy, but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world.--Paul Dudley White ![]() Stewart E. White Do not attempt to do a thing unless you are sure of yourself; but do not relinquish it simply because someone else is not sure of you. --Stewart E. White ![]() William Allen White (1868-1944) Liberty is the only thing you cannot have unless you are willing to give it to others. William Allen White (1868-1944) Consistency is the paste jewel that only cheap men cherish.--William Allen White ![]() George Whitefield (1714-1770) Go to bed seasonably, and rise early. Redeem your precious time: pick up the fragments of it, that not one moment of it may be lost. Be much in secret prayer. Converse less with man, and more with God.-- GEORGE WHITEFIELD Your extremity shall be God's opportunity.- George Whitefield letter 25 July174 We can preach the Gospel of Christ no further than we have experienced the power of it in our own hearts.- George Whitefield journal: 1739 The regard I have always had for you is still great, in not greater than ever; and I trust we shall give this and future ages an example of true Christian love abiding, notwithstanding differences in judgment. - George Whitefireld letter to John Wesley, Whitefield, Works, vol 1, p.438 I always observe inward trials prepare me for, and are certain forerunners of, fresh mercies. - George Whitefield , journal: DECEMBER 1, 1739 I never feel the power of religion more than when under outward or inward trials. It is that alone which can enable any man to sustain with patience and thankfulness his bodily infirmities. - George Whitefield , journal DECEMBER 18, 1739 Venture daily upon Christ, go out in His strength, and He will enable you to do wonders.-George Whitefield , letter: 26 July 1741 The renewal of our natures is a work of great importance. It is not to be done in a day. We have not only a new house to build up, but an old one to tear down. George Whitefield Be content with no degree of sanctification. Be always crying out, "Lord, let me know more of myself and of thee." -- George Whitefield ,letter: Gladly shall I come whenever bodily strength will allow
to join my testimony with yours in Olney pulpit, that God is
love. As yet I have not recovered from the fatigues of my
American expedition. My shattered bark is scarce worth
docking any more. But I would fain wear, not rust, out. Oh!
my dear Mr. Newton, indeed and indeed I am ashamed that I
have done and suffered so little for Him that hath done and
suffered so much for ill and hell-deserving me. Jesus was God and man in one person, that God and man might be happy together again. -- George Whitefield If I see a man who loves the Lord Jesus in sincerity, I am not very solicitous to what communion he belongs. The Kingdom of God, I think, does not consist in any such thing.-- GEORGE WHITEFIELD Let a man go to the grammar school of faith and repentance before he goes to the university of election and predestination. -- GEORGE WHITEFIELD Works? Works? A man get to heaven by works? I would as soon think of climbing to the moon on a rope of sand!-- GEORGE WHITEFIELD It is an undoubted truth that every doctrine that comes from God, leads to God; and that which doth not tend to promote holiness is not of God. GEORGE WHITEFIELD ![]() Alfred North Whitehead, (1861-1947). I have always noticed that deeply and truly religious persons are fond of a joke, and I am suspicious of those who aren't.- Alfred North Whitehead, (1861-1947). The learned tradition is not concerned with truth, but with the learned adjustment of learned statements of antecedent learned people. -- Alfred North Whitehead What is morality in any given time or place? It is what the majority then and there happen to like, and immorality is what they dislike. Alfred North Whitehead Knowledge keeps no better than fish. - Alfred North Whitehead Seek simplicity but distrust it. - Alfred North Whitehead, 1861 - 1947 ![]() Katharine Whitehorn I am firm. You are obstinate. He is a pig-headed fool. Katharine Whitehorn ![]() Elizabeth Whitley Small James (King of Scotland from one year old) twice
disobeyed him (tutor George Buchanan, 60 years his senior)
and then deliberately defied him to his face. Buchanan
turned him up and laid on so heartily that Lady Mar came
running, horrified by the howls to ask:"What dost though to
the Lord's Annointed?' ![]() Bulstrode Whitelocke He (Cromwell) would sometimes be very cheerful with us, and laying aside his greatness he would be exceeding familiar with us, and by way of diversion would make verses with us, and everyone must try his fancy. He commonly called for tobacco, pipes, and a candle, and would now and then take tobacco himself; then he would fall again to his serious and great business. -- Bulstrode Whitelocke, _Memorialls of English Affairs_, 1682 ![]() Glen Whitman The Two Things about Women ![]() Walt Whitman (1819 &endash; 1892) I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the
journey-work of the stars... ![]() John Greeleaf Whittier (1809-1892) For of all the sad words of tongue or pen, The age is dull and mean. Men creep, We search the world for truth; ![]() David Whyte Some things cannot be spoken or discovered until we have been stuck, incapacitated, or blown off course for awhile. Plain sailing is pleasant, buy you are not going to explore many unknown realms that way.- David Whyte ![]() Tom Wicker As a reporter, I interviewed, traveled with, reported on, and deplored Richard Nixon's actions for much of his career. As a columnist, I frequently criticized his presidency. Later, after his political career was ended, I studied Nixon and his record, talked to his friends and enemies, reviewed my own words and memories, and concluded that he was neither evil nor a victim, except of himself--and we're all that kind of victim. - Tom Wicker _Character Above All_ ![]() Anne Widdicombe ....our times when it is unfashionable to be sure of anything, when anything is tolerated except intolerance and when any individual is infallible except the Pope. - Anne Widdicombe MP, The Path To Rome ![]() Elie Wiesel The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference Elie Wiesel ![]() Leon Wieseltier In the memory of oppression, oppression peretuates itself. The scar does the work of the wound. That is the real tragedy: that injustice retains the power to distort long after it has ceased to be real. It is a posthumous victory for the oppressors, when pain becomes a tradition. This is the unfairly difficult dilemma of the newly emancipated and the newly enfranchised: an honorable life is not possible if they remember too little, and a normal life is not possible if they remember too much. -- Leon Wieseltier, "Scar Tissue", _The New Republic_, June 5, 1989 ![]() William Wilberforce Brethren, it is easier to declaim against a thousand sins of others, God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the Slave Trade and the reformation of manners.-- William Wilberforce, diary, 1787 They charge me with fanaticism. If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large. --William Wilberforce, speech, House of Commons, 19 June 1816 ![]() Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919) One ship drives east and another drives west ![]() Michael Wilcock Beware the gifts of the Spirit without the fruits of the Spirit - Michael Wilcock, The Message of Judges, p86 ![]() Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything. -- Oscar Wilde To disagree with three-fourths of the British public on all points is one of the first elements of sanity, one of the deepest consolations in all moments of spiritual doubt. ~ Oscar Wilde 1854-1900, lecture (1882) Wilde once appeared onstage after one of his plays to accept a standing ovation. During the applause, however, someone in the audience threw a rotten cabbage on stage. The witty playwright simply leaned over, picked up the cabbage, and replied: "Thank you, my dear fellow. Every time I smell it, I shall be reminded of you." Who, being loved, is poor?- Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) A true friend stabs you in the front.- Oscar Wilde Commandments Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go. - Oscar Wilde, 1854 - 1900 A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.-- Oscar Wilde And when the wind and winter harden I seem to have heard that observation before. . . . It has all the vitality of error and all the tediousness of an old friend. -- Oscar Wilde I am not young enough to know everything.-- Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Indeed, in many respects, she was quite English, and was an excellent example of the fact that we have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language. -- Oscar Wilde, THE CANTERVILLE GHOST, I Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.--Oscar Wilde The only possible form of exercise is to talk, not to walk.Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Experience - the name men give to their mistakes. -- Oscar Wilde Relations are simply a tedious pack of people who haven't got the remotest knowledge of how to live, nor the smallest instinct about when to die. -- Oscar Wilde, "The Importance of Being Earnest" Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months. Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means. Oscar Wilde People fashion their God after their own understanding. They make their God first and worship him afterwards. Oscar Wilde The English country gentleman galloping after a fox--the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable.--Oscar Wilde, _A Woman of No Importance_ There is much to be said in favour of modern journalism. By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, it keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community. Oscar Wilde Only the shallow know themselves. -- Oscar Wilde Come down, O Son of God! incestuous gloom No man is rich enough to buy back his past. Oscar Wilde The value of an idea has nothing whatever to do with the sincerity of the man who expresses it. --Oscar Wilde The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.-- Oscar Wilde There is only one thing in the world worse than being
talked about, and that is not being talked about. Yet each man kills the thing he loves, Misfortunes one can endure: they come from outside, they
are accidents. But to suffer for one's own faults--ah! there
is the sting of life. Good resolutions are simply cheques that men draw on a bank where they have no account.--Oscar Wilde Men always want to be a woman's first love. Women have a more subtle instinct: What they like is to be a man's last romance.--Oscar Wilde Women are never disarmed by compliments. Men always are.That is the difference between the sexes.-- Oscar Wilde Where there is sorrow, there is holy ground.-- Oscar Wilde And he goes through life, his mouth open, and his mind closed ~ Oscar Wilde The worst vice of a fanatic is his sincerity ~ Oscar Wilde He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends. -- Oscar Wilde Rugby is a game for barbarians played by gentlemen. Football is a game for gentlemen played by barbarians. Oscar Wilde Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being love brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring. --Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Those things which the English public never forgives -youth, power and enthusiasm. ~ Oscar Wilde, in R. Ross, Collected Works of Oscar Wilde (1908) I like to do all the talking myself. It saves time and prevents arguments. ~ Oscar Wilde, The Remarkable Rocket. ![]() Thornton Wilder (1897 -1975) Ninety-nine percent of the people in the world are fools and the rest of us are in great danger of contagion. - Thornton Wilder (1897 -1975) ![]() Kaiser Wilhelm Give me a woman who loves beer and I will conquer the world. --Kaiser Wilhelm ![]() John Wilkes (1725 &endash; 1797) Voter: "I'd sooner vote for the devil." [Earl of Sandwich:] 'Pon my soul, Wilkes, I don't
know whether you'll die upon the gallows or of the pox. ![]() George Will (1941 &endash; ) Football is a mistake. It combines the two worst elements of American life. Violence and committee meetings. -- George Will The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.--George F. Will (1941- )_The Leveling Wind_ [1994] Often nowadays we hear a question posed that is not
really a question. It is an oblique assertion of what the
ostensible questioner considers a self-evident truth. The
question is: Should we not all respect and honor one's
differences? The gravamen of the "question" invariably is
that differences of race, ethnicity and sexuality all should
be "respected" and "honored." The homosexual subculture based on brief, barren assignations is, in part, a dark mirror of the sex-obsessed majority culture. George Will, 1977 So the Clinton-Gore era culminates with an election as stained as the blue dress, a Democratic chorus complaining that the Constitution should not be the controlling legal authority, and Clinton's understudy dispatching lawyers to litigate this: "It depends on what the meaning of 'vote' is.-- George Will Politicians fascinate because they constitute such a paradox; they are an elite that accomplishes mediocrity for the public good. - George Will ![]() Dallas Willard Thomas a Kempis speaks for all the ages when he
represents Jesus as saying to him, "A wise lover regards not
so much the gift of him who loves, as the love of him who
gives. He esteems affection rather than valuables, and sets
all gifts below the Beloved. A noble-minded lover rests not
in the gift, but in Me above every gift." The sustaining
power of the Beloved Presence has through the ages made the
sickbed sweet and the graveside triumphant; transformed
broken hearts and relations; brought glory to drudgery,
poverty and old age; and turned the martyr's stake or noose
into a place of coronation. ![]() SAMUEL WILLARD It was a particular condescension of the Son of God, to be born of any of Adam's sinful children. True honour in God's account consists in holiness, and sin is to Him the vilest disgrace. Original sin in Christ's mother had made her more contemptible and ignoble than anything else could; had she been an empress, it would yet have been to Christ an abasing of himself to derive his humanity from her. That a clean thing should come out of an unclean is strange; for though she was sanctified by grace, nevertheless she had not attained spotless perfection, but still had the stain and pollution of sin on her. As it is a disgrace to have a traitor as one's father, so it is no less to have a sinner for one's mother. Thus Christ, though without sin, would be intimately related to sinners, for whose sake he came into the world. - SAMUEL WILLARD ![]() Bern Williams Man never made any material as resilient as the human spirit. --Bern Williams ![]() Kenneth Williams I wonder if anyone will ever know the emptiness of my
life. Personal Diary - Last entry "Oh what's the point?" ![]() Maurice A. Williams What an eye opener! This man, so highly revered as an expert on human thinking, doesn't himself understand who God is and what God has done, even with Job.~Maurice A. Williams (on Jung) ![]() Robin Williams God gave us a penis and a brain, but not enough blood to use both at the same time. -- Robin Williams ![]() Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) High station in life is earned by the gallantry with which appalling experiences are survived with grace. -Tennessee Williams, _Memoir We have to distrust each other. It is our only defense against betrayal. --Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) ![]() Walter Williams Liberals believe government should take people's earnings to give to poor people. Conservatives disagree. They think government should confiscate people's earnings and give them to farmers and insolvent banks. The compelling issue to both conservatives and liberals is not whether it is legitimate for government to confiscate one's property to give to another, the debate is over the disposition of the pillage.--Walter Williams ![]() William Williams While Mr. Spurgeon was living at Nightingale Lane,
Clapham, an excursion was one day organised by one of the
young men's classes at the Tabernacle. The brake with the
excursionists was to call for the President on their way to
mid-Surrey. ![]() William Carlos Williams The better work men do is always done under stress and at great personal cost. -William Carlos Williams ![]() Gary Willis Only the winners decide what were war crimes. Gary Willis ![]() Nathaniel Parker Willis Nature's noblemen are everywhere, in town and out of town, gloved and rough-handed, rich and poor. Prejudice against a lord because he is a lord, is losing the chance of finding a good fellow, as much as prejudice against a ploughman because he is a ploughman.-- Nathaniel Parker Willis, 19thC ![]() Allan Winger For me, as an old soldier, it has never been my place to ask my commander why this battle or this war is not over yet, or why peace has not come.- Allan Winger ![]() A.N. Wilson The fact that logic cannot satisfy us awakens an almost insatiable hunger for the irrational. --A.N. Wilson, 1989 ![]() Charles Wilson What's good for the country is good for General Motors,
and vice versa. ![]() Edmund Wilson Marxism is the opium of the intellectuals. Edmund Wilson ![]() Edward O. Wilson(1929 &endash; ) I will be brief. Not nearly so brief as Salvador Dali, who gave the world's shortest speech. He said "I will be so brief I have already finished," and he sat down. Edward O. Wilson, 1995 ![]() Geoffrey B Wilson In Hebrew thought the word 'rest ' has a positive meaning
and ' stands for consummation of a work accomplished and the
joy and satisfaction attendant upon this. Such was its
prototype in God...For mankind, too, a great task awaits to
be accomplished, and at its close beckons a rest of joy and
satisfaction that shall copy the rest of God. Before all
other important things, therefore, the Sabbath is an
expression of the eschatological principle on which the life
of humanity has been constructed...It teaches its lesson
through the rhythmical succession of six days of labour and
one ensuing day of rest in each successive week. Man is
reminded in this way that life is not an aimless existence,
that a goal lies beyond.' ![]() Gordon Wilson I bear no ill-will against those responsible for this.
That sort of talk will not bring her back to life. I shall
pray for those people tonight and every night. I know there
has to be a plan even though we might not understand it. God
is good and we shall meet again. ![]() Harold Wilson (1916 &endash; 1995) He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.--Harold Wilson Have you noticed how we only win the World Cup under a Labour Government ? - Harold Wilson 1966 ![]() Monte Wilson The whole charismatic idea of true spirituality and of the normal Christian life is painfully close to the idea of a life touched by magic: perfect marriages, obedient children, no sickness, no divorce, no poverty, no tragedies, no defeats, no death. 'No dice,' saith God. - Monte Wilson ![]() Sloan Wilson (1920 &endash; 2003) Success in almost any field depends more on energy and drive than it does on intelligence. This explains why we have so many stupid leaders. - Sloan Wilson (1920 &endash; ) The need to let suffering speak is a condition of all truth. - Theodor AdornSuccess in almost any field depends more on energy and drive than it does on intelligence. This explains why we have so many stupid leaders. - Sloan Wilson (1920 &endash; ) It's not a question of who's going to throw the first stone; it's a question of who's going to start building with it.--Sloan Wilson ![]() Thomas Wilson He that will not command his thoughts . . . will soon lose the command of his actions. --Thomas Wilson ![]() Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) If I am to speak for ten minutes, I need a week for
preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an
hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now. No man can sit down and withhold his hands from the warfare against wrong and get peace from his acquiescence.-- Woodrow Wilson, speech, 1911 Liberty never came from government. The history of liberty is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it. Woodrow Wilson Speech in New York, September 9, 1912 If you want to make enemies, try to change something.-- Woodrow Wilson: Genius is divine perseverance. Genius I cannot claim, nor even extra brightness, but perseverance all can have.--Woodrow Wilson There is such a thing as a man too proud to fight.-Woodrow Wilson reacts to the sinking of the Lusitania on 7 May 1915 I can predict with absolute certainty that within another generation there will be another world war if the nations of the world do not concert the method by which to prevent it.~ Woodrow Wilson, 1919 ~ ![]() Duke of Windsor The thing that impresses me most about America is the way parents obey their children. -- The Duke of Windsor, Look, March 5, 1957 ![]() Edward Winslow We planted last spring some 20 acres of Indian corn and sowed some 6 acres of barley and peas, and according to the manner of the Indians, we manured our ground with herrings or rather shads, which we have in great abundance and take with great ease at our doorsteps. We began to gather in the small harvest we had, and to fit up our houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had all things in good plenty. Others were exercised in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion. All summer there was no lack. And now began to come in store of fowl as winter approached. And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which we took many, besides deer and other animals. Our harvest being gotten in, Governor Bradford sent four men on fowling and they in one day killed enough fowl to serve our company for a week. During this time, among other recreations, we exercised with our weapons, many of the Indians also coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king, Massasoit, with some 90 men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted; and they went out themselves and killed five deer, which they brought back to our settlement. Edward Winslow & William Bradford , from "Mourt's Relation " and "Of Plymouth Plantation"). ![]() Octavius Winslow The religion of Christ is the religion of JOY. Christ came to take away our sins, to roll off our curse, to unbind our chains, to open our prisonhouse, to cancel our debt; in a word, to give us the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Is not this joy? Where can we find a joy so real, so deep, so pure, so lasting? There is every element of joy - deep, ecstatic, satisfying, sanctifying joy - in the gospel of Christ. The believer in Jesus is essentially a happy man. The child of God is, from necessity, a joyful man. His sins are forgiven, his soul is justified, his person is adopted, his trials are blessings, his conflicts are victories, his death is immortality, his future is a heaven of inconceivable, unthought-of, untold, and endless blessedness. With such a God, such a Saviour, and such a hope, is he not, ought he not, to be a joyful man? Octavius Winslow, THE SYMPATHY OF CHRIST, p. 215f. If the marks of discipleship were merely an orthodox
creed excited feeling denominational zeal
flaming partisanship, then there are many that "find the
way." But if the true travellers are men of broken
heart poor in spirit who mourn for sin who
know the music of the Shepherd's voice who follow the
Lamb who delight in the throne of grace and who
love the place of the cross, then there are but
few with whom the true saints journey to heaven in
fellowship and communion. ![]() Jonathan Winters I couldn't wait for success so I went on ahead without it. -- JONATHAN WINTERS
![]() Isaac Mayer Wise The Greek grasped the present moment, and was the artist; the Jew worshipped the timeless spirit, and was the prophet. --Isaac Mayer Wise, "The Wandering Jew", 1877, _Selected Writings_ ![]() Stephen S. Wise Recently at a public banquet I happened to sit next to a lady who tried to impress me by vouchsafing the information that one of her ancestors witnessed the signing of the Declaration of Independence. I could not resist replying: "Mine were present at the Giving of the Ten Commandments. -- Stephen S. Wise, 1923, in J. H. Hertz's _A Book of Jewish Thoughts_, 1924 ![]() Ludwig J J Wittgenstein (1889-1951) We feel that even if all possible scientific questions be answered, the problems of life have still not been touched at all. Of course there is then no question left, and just this is the answer. - L J J Wittgenstein, 1889-1951 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 6.52 (1921), translation C. K. Ogden and Frank Ramsey (1922) If people did not sometimes do silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done. - Ludwig Wittgenstein ![]() P.G. Wodehouse The fact that I am not a haggis addict is probably due to my having read Shakespeare. It is the same with many Englishmen. There is no doubt that Shakespeare has rather put us off the stuff.... You remember the passage to which I refer? Macbeth happens upon the three witches while they are preparing the evening meal. They are dropping things into the cauldron and chanting "Eye of newt and toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog," and so on, and he immediately recognises the recipe. "How now, you secret, black and midnight haggis," he cries shuddering. - P.G. Wodehouse ![]() James Wolfe (1727-59) The General ... repeated nearly the whole of Gray's Elegy .... adding, as he concluded, that he would prefer being the author of that poem to the glory of beating the French tomorrow - Written of James Wolfe (1727-59) who died capturing Quebec. ![]() Dennis Wolfberg There's one advantage to being 102. No peer pressure. ~ Dennis Wolfberg ![]() Adam Wolfson Almost all modern liberal thought begins with the bedrock assumption that humans are basically good. Within this moral horizon something such as terrorism cannot really exist, except as a manifestation of injustice, or unfairness, or lack of decent social services. -- Adam Wolfson ![]() David J. Wolpe An old saying has it that there are three things we should not discuss in polite company: sex, politics and religion. We don't follow this advice when it comes to sex and politics. Sexuality, especially in the context of relationships, is an everyday topic of conversation. Office and national politics are discussed constantly. The third theme alone is missing. Next time you're at a party, try sidling up to someone, drink in hand, and ask, "So what do you think about God, anyway?" You will quickly find yourself alone. Everyone has his or her own ideas about God, we are told. But that is equally true of sex and politics. The truth seems to be that most of us have lost the knack for talking about the deepest issues of life. This lack impoverishes our conversation and, ultimately, our lives as well. David J. Wolpe ![]() Kenneth Wolstenholme They think it's all over - it is now - Kenneth Wolstenholme, June 1966. ![]() Jill Holly Bethune Wood ... you do know what would have happened if it had been three wise WOMEN instead of men, don't you? They would have asked for directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby, and brought disposable diapers as gifts. - Jill Holly Bethune Wood ![]() Natalie Wood (1938 &endash; 1981) The only time a woman can really succeed in changing a man is when he is a baby. - Natalie Wood (1938 &endash; 1981) ![]() George E. Woodberry The school of life embodies a compulsory education that no man escapes.--George E. Woodberry The sense that someone else cares always helps, because it is the sense of love. George E. Woodberry ![]() John Wooden Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.-- John Wooden You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.John Wooden ![]() Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) In the long run, there is not much discrimination against superior talent. It constrains men to recognize it.- Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) "Negro Makers of HIstory," 1928. ![]() Clark Woodward As far as sinking a ship with a bomb is concerned, you just can't do it. Rear Admiral Clark Woodward (1939) ![]() Alexander Woollcott Then I suppose I should tell you about Lord Reading's recent marriage to a woman some forty years younger than himself. The London Times account of the wedding ended, unfortunately, with this sentence 'The bridegroom's gift to the bride was an antique pendant.' -- Alexander Woollcott ![]() William Wordsworth (1770-1850) How the bold teacher's doctrine, sanctified I travelled among unknown men, Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour: We must be free or die who speak the tongue The best portion of a good man's life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love. William Wordsworth The world is too much with us; late and soon, ![]() Virginia Woolf The middle age of buggers is not to be contemplated without horror.--Virginia Woolf ![]() Abraham Wright I am mended by my sickness, enriched by my poverty, and strengthened by my weakness....Thus was it with....Manasseh, when he was in affliction, "He besought the Lord his God": even that king's iron was more precious to him than his gold, his jail a more happy lodging than his palace, Babylon a better school than Jerusalem. What fools are we, then, to frown upon our afflictions! These, how crabbed soever, are our best friends. They are not, indeed, for our pleasure, but for our profit. --Abraham Wright ![]() Frank Lloyd Wright (1867 &endash; 1959) TV is chewing gum for the eyes. --Frank Lloyd Wright ![]() N. T. Wright The main motive for disestablishment, as we meet it in the press and elsewhere, is of course the old secularist agenda, coming from those who are offended that the Enlightenment hasn't been able to have its way with every area of society. When people argue that we live in a religiously plural society, they usually don't actually want to take those religions seriously; they are just repeating another bit of Enlightenment rhetoric, that there are so many religions that all are equally irrelevant. In fact, though of course non-Christian faiths must be taken seriously, they still only represent a tiny minority of people in this country. And there is good evidence that many leaders of Jewish and Muslim communities are much happier that Christianity is the established religion than they would be if secularism were to replace it. The Jews in particular know what that might mean - N. T. Wright, GOD AND CAESAR, THEN AND NOW, Lecture:, Monday 22 April 2002 ![]() Orville Wright (1871-1948) No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris ... [because] no known motor can run at the requisite speed for four days without stopping, -Orville Wright (1871-1948) US inventor, aviation pioneer ![]() Richardson Wright He clothed himself with our lowliness in order to invest us with his grandeur.--Richardson Wright ![]() Steven Wright (1955 &endash; ) There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot. Steven Wright I poured spot remover on my dog. Now he's gone. ~ Stephen Wright You can't have everything. Where would you put it? ---Steven Wright ![]() Wilbur Wright (1867-1912) I confess that in 1901 I said to my brother Orville that man would not fly for fifty years. Two years later we ourselves made flights. This demonstration of my impotence as a prophet gave me such a shock that ever since I have distrusted myself and avoided all predictions. --Wilbur Wright (1867-1912) _In a speech to the Aero Club of France_ [November 5, 1908] ![]() William Wycherley I weigh the man, not his title: 'tis not the king's inscription can make the metal better or heavier.--William Wycherley ![]() John Wycliffe (?1330-1384) I believe that in the end truth will conquer.--John Wycliffe (?1330-1384) in The Lion Christian Quotation Collection, 1997 In order to the existence of such a ministry in the Church, there is requisite an authority received from God, and consequently power and knowledge imparted from God for the exercise of such ministry; and where a man possesses these, although the bishop has not laid hands upon him according to his traditions, God has Himself appointed him.... John Wycliffe (1320?-1384) This Bible is for the government of the people, by the people and for the people.-- --John Wycliffe (?1330-1384) in The Lion Christian Quotation Collection, 1997 There was good reason for the silence of the Holy Spirit as to how,when, in what form Christ ordained the apostles, the reason being to show the indifferency of all forms of words. ---John Wycliffe (?1330-1384) in The Lion Christian Quotation Collection, 1997 Our clerics neither evangelize like the apostles, nor go to was like the secular lords, nor toil like labourers.----John Wycliffe (?1330-1384) in The Lion Christian Quotation Collection, 1997 .The higher the hill, the stronger the wind: so the loftier the life,the stronger the enemy's temptations.----John Wycliffe (?1330-1384) in The Lion Christian Quotation Collection, 1997 Christ during His life upon earth was of all men the
poorest, casting from Him all worldly authority. I deduce
from these premises... that the Pope should surrender all
temporal authority to the civil power and advise his clergy
to do the same. ![]() N C Wyeth But it is good to repeat fundamental truths and, if possible, bring them into new and fresh focus. A great truth is like a mountain that one walks around, and the changes of its contour, as one moves his position, only emphasize and revivify its majesty. - N C Wyeth ![]() |
Last Modified: 3/7/05