Plants don't think. Animals are guided by the power of instinct over which they themselves have no control. Animals have a certain kind of brain that makes it impossible to learn anything except very simple things. No generation of animals ever learns anything from any previous generation. We act like animals when we fail to use this magnificent piece of equipment.
Sterling W SillAncient Chinese custom if you were a guest in one of their homes and you admired some particular thing, they would wrap it up and present it to you as a gift. But isn't that what life does.
Sterling W SillWe have one of our greatest human experiences when we get an active idea working in our minds.
Sterling W SillMake sure that your ambitions are really lofty - not just seem to be. Sometimes instead of engaging in those so called "mountaintop employments of great value," we spend our time in digging a pit and then falling therein, so that our temporary joy may become a permanent and bitter loss.
Sterling W SillPunctuality is closely related to faithfulness and dependability. Being tardy can be linked to uninterest, apathy, slothfulness and procrastination.
Sterling W SillThat man loves God who puts his own life in harmony with him, and who serves his fellow men as though his life depends upon it, as indeed it does.
Sterling W SillPeople would rather be praised than criticized but the later may help us make more progress.
Sterling W SillTreasures in heaven are more permanent. They are more satisfying. There are only two reasons why we are not as successful as we would like to be in laying up earthly treasures. One is that we sometimes get into the wrong business; and the second reason is that even though we may be in the right business, we do not always work at it effectively. Interestingly enough, these are the same reasons why we fail in laying up treasures in heaven.
Sterling W SillThe way of success is not run with seven league boots but step by step, little by little, bit by bit ... with no exceptions allowed.
Sterling W SillEverything depends on attitude. We are ambitious or lazy, enthusiastic or dull, loyal or undependable, according to our attitude.
Sterling W SillOne of the greatest possible sins would be to return to God the life which he has given us with our abilities undiscovered and our talents undeveloped an unutilized. One of Jesus most bitter rebukes was given to him who buried his talents in the ground.
Sterling W SillThe greatest opportunity of our lives is to wake ourselves up and get going. There is so much to be done and so little time to do it. We should impress ourselves with the seriousness of slothfulness.
Sterling W SillPaul had an almost missionary companion. His name was Demas. Paul wrote his entire history in nine words. He says: Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world.
Sterling W SillThose who wallow around in the sickness of their immorality and degeneracy get very little joy out of life here and certainly not much promise is held out for them hereafter.
Sterling W SillThe greatest of all our human concepts is the immortality of the personality and the eternal glory of the human soul. Throughout eternity you will be yourself and I will be myself, with quickened senses amplified powers of perception, and vastly increased capacity for reason, understanding, love, and happiness, all of which are qualities we may develop now. Our machines wear out, our barns fall down, and our substance goes back to the dust, but our finest collection of personal qualities will have eternal life.
Sterling W SillIf I were asked to give the best idea of which I am capable, it would be that we should get out of the junk business and then start laying up treasures in heaven.
Sterling W SillI heard of somebody once who said he was interested in doing the greatest amount of good for the greatest number, and that the greatest number was number one. That was himself. That may sound like a little bit of selfishness, but if that is selfishness, at least it is a very intelligent selfishness. Everyone has a right to be interested in himself, and I am confident that God wants us to be interested in ourselves first; that is, the first soul that anyone should bring to God should be his own soul.
Sterling W SillA story is told that Whistler once painted a tiny picture of a spray of roses. The artistry involved in the picture was magnificent. Never before, it seemed, had the art of man been able to execute quite so deftly a reproduction of the art of nature.
Sterling W SillWe can cross the rivers of doubt and discouragement on the bridge of faith even before we get to them
Sterling W SillIf one neglects the laws of learning, a sentence is imposed that he is forever chained to his ignorance.
Sterling W SillThere is one thing more serious than merely to not believe, and that is to not care.
Sterling W SillThere is a fatality about unkept good resolutions. They are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.
Sterling W SillMost procrastination is largely indecision. Someone has said that "hell is just truth seen too late."
Sterling W SillSomeone has said that after age forty, each of us pretty much deserves the face he is wearing. He designed it form the inside.
Sterling W SillPlanning is the mother of almost every other ability. Make your plan and set a timetable for its accomplishment in writing.
Sterling W SillSomeone has said that planning is the place where man shows himself most like God. Nothing is more godlike than the planner, the thinker, the organizer. He is the one who draws the blueprint for success. He is the one who builds the roadway on which accomplishment will travel. It is likely that our greatest opportunity is to have a good set of definitely worked-out objectives that are fully believed in and about which firm determinations have been made.
Sterling W SillHang on the walls of your mind the memory of your successes. Take counsel of your strength, not your weakness. Think of the good jobs you have done. For whenever excellence is recounted, it is increased.
Sterling W SillFighting is not the best way to win an argument. If carried to its ultimate conclusions, the old idea of "an eye for an eye" eventually ends in making everybody blind.
Sterling W SillWhen in our minds we pre-live our marriage, we help to determine the kind of person that we would like to be when that event arrives. As we pre-live our success, we develop the abilities necessary to bring it about. And with the information and direction given us in the Holy Scriptures we can even pre-live that important period that lies beyond the boundaries of this life.
Sterling W SillGod did not intend that we should be cowards, or delinquents, or fools, or sinners or weaklings. He created us in his own image and commanded us to be men.
Sterling W SillYou can't judge a man by watching him live. . . . I personally watched Babe Ruth at bat three times, and he struck out every time. But at the very time that I was watching him strike out, the record said that he was the greatest home-run king who ever lived.
Sterling W SillI suggest...that you develop early in life the habit of retiring and arising early. You remember the advice of Ben Franklin: "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.
Sterling W SillEverything depends on attitude. We are ambitious or lazy, enthusiastic or dull, loyal or undependable, according to our attitude. We get good grades or poor grades - according to our attitudes. Discouragement is an attitude. Lack of industry is an attitude. Failure to follow instructions is an attitude. attitude
Sterling W SillThe best sculptor is the one who can most accurately reproduce in marble the image that he sees before him. The good cook follows the recipe. The pharmacist can utilize the many years of training of the most famous doctors from the best medical schools, if he just knows how to follow a prescription. Someone has said that science is just a collection of successful formulas.
Sterling W SillSome intentionally injure others through mocking, sarcasm with no intent to help. Others are trying to help.
Sterling W SillEveryone has a right to be interested in himself, and I am confident that God wants us to be interested in ourselves first; that is, the first soul that anyone should bring to God should be his own soul. We cannot do very much for anyone else until we have first done something for ourselves. That is, it is pretty difficult to give someone else an education unless we have some education ourselves. It is pretty hard to get someone else to think unless we ourselves are thinkers.
Sterling W Sill