Francis Edward Smedley Quotes & Sayings

Community as openness ...
Communities are truly communities when they open to others, when they remain vulnerable and humble; when the members are growing in love, in compassion and in humility. Communities cease to be such when members close in upon themselves with the certitude that they alone have wisdom and truth and expect everyone to be like them and learn from them.
The fundamental attitudes of true community, where there is true belonging, are openness, welcome, and listening to God, to the universe, to each other and to other communities. Community life is inspired by the universal and is open to the universal. It is based on forgiveness and openness to those who are different, to the poor and the weak. Sects put up walls and barriers out of fear, out of a need to prove themselves and to create a false security. Community is the breaking down of barriers to welcome difference. — Jean Vanier

The secret of successful education ... is finding out how a particular person learns — Nancy Farmer

I have tried for much of my life to write as if I was composing my sentences to be read posthumously. — Christopher Hitchens

You prefer her faults to other people's perfection. — Anne Bronte

Love is the force behind success in all aspects of life. Fear is what holds everyone back from achieving their dreams and attaining success. — Farshad Asl

It is a second-generation Seattle-scene record label; all of its artists are young people who came to Seattle after they graduated college in search of the legendary Seattle music scene and discovered that it didn't really exist
it was just a couple of dozen guys who sat around playing guitar in one another's basements
and so who were basically forced to choose between going home in ignominy or fabricating the Seattle Music scene of their imagination from whole cloth. This led to the establishment of any number of small clubs, and the foundation of many bands, that were not rooted in any kind of authentic reality whatsoever but merely reflected the dreams and aspiration of pan-global young adults who had flocked to Seattle on the same chimera hunt. — Neal Stephenson

If I beat myself up about the bad stuff I did, I'm ignoring that I was strong enough to stop being that person. I think what I'm doing with my life now is a lot more important than what I did when I was a stupid kid. — Gail Giles

We have to change every day to survive, but we fear change the most. — Debasish Mridha

You have to be able to swim in backlash. — Kanye West

In teaching people what it means to be a Christian, we spend much of our time and effort bringing them to a point of belief without clearly calling them to follow. We have taken "believe" and we have written that in capital letters with bold print: BELIEVE. But everything that has to do with following has been put in small print: follow. — Kyle Idleman