Diane Lee > Diane's Quotes

“I tumbled into the taxi alone, closing the door closed with a dull thud before I could possibly change my mind. Not like this, I remember thinking. Whatever this thing is between us, it could only be tainted and cheapened by a semi-drunken encounter on the night of our first meeting. As the car pulled away I stared back at him. The thought that I might never see him again, that I might never know what it would feel like to be kissed by him, seemed unbearably cruel.
At a crossroads, I had been faced with a choice: two possible versions of my future mapped out ahead of me. But I didn't feel like I had made any sort of decision. All I had done was run away.”
― Catherine Sanderson, Petite Anglaise

“I do not see how it is possible for a man to die worth fifty million of dollars, or ten million of dollars, in a city full of want, when he meets almost every day the withered hand of beggary and the white lips of famine. How a man can withstand all that, and hold in the clutch of his greed twenty or thirty million of dollars, is past my comprehension. I do not see how he can do it. I should not think he could do it any more than he could keep a pile of lumber on the beach, where hundreds and thousands of men were drowning in the sea.”
― Robert G. Ingersoll, The Liberty Of Man, Woman And Child

“No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God . . . and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father and Mother in heaven.”
― Orson F. Whitney

“Prayer of an Anonymous Abbess:

Lord, thou knowest better than myself that I am growing older and will soon be old. Keep me from becoming too talkative, and especially from the unfortunate habit of thinking that I must say something on every subject and at every opportunity.

Release me from the idea that I must straighten out other peoples' affairs. With my immense treasure of experience and wisdom, it seems a pity not to let everybody partake of it. But thou knowest, Lord, that in the end I will need a few friends.

Keep me from the recital of endless details; give me wings to get to the point.

Grant me the patience to listen to the complaints of others; help me to endure them with charity. But seal my lips on my own aches and pains -- they increase with the increasing years and my inclination to recount them is also increasing.

I will not ask thee for improved memory, only for a little more humility and less self-assurance when my own memory doesn't agree with that of others. Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I may be wrong.

Keep me reasonably gentle. I do not have the ambition to become a saint -- it is so hard to live with some of them -- but a harsh old person is one of the devil's masterpieces.

Make me sympathetic without being sentimental, helpful but not bossy. Let me discover merits where I had not expected them, and talents in people whom I had not thought to possess any. And, Lord, give me the grace to tell them so.

Amen”
― Anonymous

“Waiting and hoping is a hard thing to do when you've already been waiting and hoping for almost as long as you can bear it.”
― Jenny Nimmo, Charlie Bone and the Time Twister

“Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability—
and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances
acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.”
― Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

“If you're serious about sanctification, you can expect to experience heart-wrenching moments that try your faith, your endurance, and your patience.”
― Sheri L. Dew, If Life Were Easy, It Wouldn't Be Hard: And Other Reassuring Truths

“God, teach me to be patient, teach me to go slow,
Teach me how to wait on You when my way I do not know.

Teach me sweet forbearance when things do not go right
So I remain unruffled when others grow uptight.

Teach me how to quiet my racing, rising heart
So I might hear the answer You are trying to impart.

Teach me to let go, dear God, and pray undisturbed until
My heart is filled with inner peace and I learn to know your will.”
― Helen Steiner Rice

“There is something good in all seeming failures. You are not to see that now. Time will reveal it. Be patient.”
― Swami Sivananda

“Be patient. Your skin took a while to deteriorate. Give it some time to reflect a calmer inner state. As one of my friends states on his Facebook profile: "The true Losers in Life, are not those who Try and Fail, but those who Fail to Try.”
― Jess C. Scott, Clear: A Guide to Treating Acne Naturally

“I realized that the deepest spiritual lessons are not learned by His letting us have our way in the end, but by His making us wait, bearing with us in love and patience until we are able to honestly to pray what He taught His disciples to pray: Thy will be done.”
― Elisabeth Elliot, Passion and Purity: Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under Christ's Control

“The soul hardly ever realizes it, but whether he is a believer or not, his loneliness is really a homesickness for God.”
― Hubert Van Zeller

“Life it too short to deal with crazy people.”
― Karen E. Quinones Miller

“What you encounter, recognize or discover depends to a large degree on the quality of your approach. Many of the ancient cultures practiced careful rituals of approach. An encounter of depth and spirit was preceded by careful preparation.

When we approach with reverence, great things decide to approach us. Our real life comes to the surface and its light awakens the concealed beauty in things. When we walk on the earth with reverence, beauty will decide to trust us. The rushed heart and arrogant mind lack the gentleness and patience to enter that embrace.”
― John O'Donohue, Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

“Put up in a place
where it is easy to see
the cryptic admonishment
T.T.T

When you feel how depressingly
slowly you climb
it's well to remember that
Things Take Time.”
― Piet Hein

“Patience is the ability to idle your motor when you feel like stripping your gears.”
― Barbara Johnson

“The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it.”
― Arnold H. Glasgow

“everything is ridiculous if one thinks of death”
― Thomas Bernhard

“Patience is not passive waiting. Patience is active acceptance of the process required to attain your goals and dreams.”
― Ray A. Davis

“For the wise have always known that no one can make much of his life until self-searching has become a regular habit, until he is able to admit and accept what he finds, and until he patiently and persistently tries to correct what is wrong. – Bill W.”
― Bill W.

“Peaceful disputes are maintained when men sincerely believe that they are morally, logically correct about the issues at hand. It is when neither side is really certain that wars are instigated.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

“So much of control is not authoritative action but mindful waiting.”
― Cameron Conaway, Caged: Memoirs of a Cage-Fighting Poet

“The work that God does in us when we wait is usually more important than the thing for which we wait!”
― Erwin W. Lutzer, When You've Been Wronged: Moving From Bitterness to Forgiveness

“Silence is victory and patience is glory.
Let silence speak our identity
and let patience keep our dignity.”
― Aram Seriteratai

“Sometimes, the scariest thing you will ever have to do is trust God to fight the battles you can no longer fight.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“There is something hugely civilised about allowing long pauses in a conversation. Very few people can stand that kind of silence.”
― James Robertson, And the Land Lay Still

“A man who drinks too much on occasion is still the same man as he was sober. An alcoholic, a real alcoholic, is not the same man at all. You can't predict anything about him for sure except that he will be someone you never met before.”
― Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye

“Not much more than a broke disgrace who's hooked on tonics, so excuse him if his poker face has puke on it.”
― Hannibal Lecture

“Now I’m
sober and I
realize, I
didn’t drink to
escape the world,
I drank to escape
myself”
― Phil Volatile, Crushed Black Velvet

“God cannot be happy when we ignore such issues as crime, corruption, alcoholism and child neglect”
― Sunday Adelaja