Quotes about Divorce

There’s no pain or failure like going through a divorce. ~Jennifer Lopez 

 You never really know a man until you have divorced him. ~Zsa Zsa Gabor 

 When two people decide to get a divorce, it isn’t a sign that they ‘don’t understand’ one another, but a sign that they have, at least, begun to.” ~Helen Rowland 

 Immediately after a divorce or a breakup, your mind whispers that there are plenty more fish in the sea, while your heart shouts that there is only one: whoever-you-just-divorced-or-broke-up-with. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana 

 Divorce isn’t such a tragedy. A tragedy’s staying in an unhappy marriage, teaching your children the wrong things about love. Nobody ever died of divorce. ~Jennifer Weiner 

 When people divorce, it’s always such a tragedy. At the same time, if people stay together it can be even worse. ~Monica Bellucci 

 Divorce, the end of an ERROR. ~Unknown 

 If you made a list of reasons why any couple got married, and another list of the reasons for their divorce, you’d have a hell of a lot of overlapping. ~Mignon McLaughlin 

 I learned that it would take more than just the black and white steps of getting divorced, or even finding a lawyer. It would take NOT just facing my fears. It would take walking into my fears — with each step making me bolder and less ashamed, with each step giving me courage. ~Liza Caldwell, SAS for Women Cofounder 

 The divorce has lasted way longer than the marriage, but finally it’s over. Enough about that. The point is that for a long time, the fact that I was divorced was the most important thing about me. And now it’s not. ~Nora Ephron

Bible verses about Divorce

Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery. ~ Luke 16:18 

 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. ~Matthew 5:32 

 To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife. ~1 Corinthians 7:10-11 

 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.” ~Matthew 19:9 

 And if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” ~Mark 10:12 

 When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, and if she goes and becomes another man's wife, and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the Lord. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance. ~Deuteronomy 24:1-4 

 To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife. To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. ... ~ 1 Corinthians 7:10-17 

 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. ~Romans 7:2-3 

 Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. And large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? ... ~Matthew 19:1-30 

 And they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought a bad name upon a virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife. He may not divorce her all his days. ~Deuteronomy 22:19 

 And this second thing you do. You cover the Lord's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. “For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.” ~ Malachi 2:13-16

A Walk In The Mountains

A son and his father were walking in the mountains. Suddenly, his son falls, hurts himself and screams: "AAAhhhhhhhhhhh!!!" 

To his surprise, he hears the voice repeating, somewhere in the mountain: "AAAhhhhhhhhhhh!!!" 

Curious, he yells: "Who are you?" 

He receives the answer: "Who are you?" 

Angered at the response, he screams: "Coward!" 

He receives the answer: "Coward!" 

He looks to his father and asks: "What's going on?" 

The father smiles and says: "My son, pay attention."  And then he screams to the mountain: "I admire you!"   

The voice answers: "I admire you!" 

Again the man screams: "You are a champion!"  The voice answers: "You are a champion!" 

The boy is surprised, but does not understand. Then the father explains: "People call this ECHO, but really this is LIFE. It gives you back everything you say or do. Our life is simply a reflection of our actions. If you want more love in the world, create more love in your heart. If you want more competence in your team, improve your competence. This relationship applies to everything, in all aspects of life; Life will give you back everything you have given to it." 

YOUR LIFE IS NOT A COINCIDENCE. IT'S A REFLECTION OF YOU!

Heaven and Hell Story

                                                         Heaven and Hell picture

A holy man was having a conversation with the Lord one day and said, "Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like." 

 The Lord led the holy man to two doors. He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in. In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew which smelled delicious and made the holy man's mouth water. But the people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful, but because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths. The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering. The Lord said, 'You have seen Hell.' 

 They then went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man's mouth water. The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking. The holy man said, "I don’t understand." "It is simple" said the Lord, "In this place the people have learned to feed one another."

The Messiah In Disguise

9 September 2018 at Church of St Anthony of Padua.  The children are going to receive their First Holy Communion.

High in the mountains was a monastery that had once been known throughout the world. Its monks were pious, its students were enthusiastic. The chants from the monastery’s chapel deeply touched the hearts of people who came there to pray and meditate. But something had changed. 

Fewer and fewer young men came to study there; fewer and fewer people came for spiritual nourishment. The monks who remained became disheartened and sad. Deeply worried, the abbot of the monastery went off in search of an answer. Why had his monastery fallen on such hard times? 

The abbot came to a guru, and he asked the master, “Is it because of some sin of ours that the monastery is no longer full of vitality?” 

“Yes,” replied the master, “it is the sin of ignorance.” 

“The sin of ignorance?” questioned the abbot. “Of what are we ignorant?” 

The guru looked at the abbot for a long, long time, and then he said, “One of you is the messiah in disguise. But you are all ignorant of this.” 

Then the guru closed his eyes, and he was silent. 

“The messiah?” thought the abbot. “The messiah is one of us? Who could it be? Could it be Brother Cook? Could it be Brother Treasurer? Could it be Brother Bell-Ringer? Could it be Brother Vegetable Grower? Which one? Which one? Every one of us has faults, failings, human defects. Isn’t the messiah supposed to be perfect? But, then, perhaps these faults and failings are part of his disguise. Which one? Which one?” 

When the abbot returned to the monastery, he gathered all the monks together and told them what the guru had said. 

“One of us? The messiah? Impossible!” 

But the master had spoken, and the master was never wrong. 

“One of us? The messiah? Incredible! But it must be so. Which one? Which one? That brother over there? That one? That one?” Whichever one of the monks was the messiah, he was, surely, in disguise. 

Not knowing who amongst them was the messiah, all the monks began treating each other with new respect. “You never know,” they thought, “he might be the one, so I had better deal with him kindly.” 

It was not long before the monastery was filled with new found joy.  Soon, new students came to learn, and people came from far and wide to be inspired by the chants of the kind, smiling monks. For once again, the monastery was filled with the spirit of love.

                               Photograph of Church of St Anthony of Padua in the year 2008.  

Mark 8:27-30 --  Peter Declares That Jesus Is the Messiah 

Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”  

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” 

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” 

Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.” 

Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

Messiah means the one who saves.  Jesus is said to be the Messiah.  Since young I always questions about who God is and questions about my faith.  I never know the answers until I had committed a serious mortal sin.  Jesus came to save me.  Indeed He is the Messiah.  Thank you Jesus for saving me.  In the church, we always have children and adults who wanted to receive Jesus as their saviour -- be it during First Holy Communion or RCIA.   

Can You See God

Photograph of Jesus arisen from the tomb, third day after His death.  Photograph taken at Church of St Anthony of Padua in the year April 2010.  

Can You See God?

A small boy once approached his slightly older sister with a question about God. "Susie, can anybody ever really see God?" he asked. 

Busy with other things, Susie curtly replied,  "No, of course not silly. God is so far up in heaven that nobody can see him." 

Time passed, but his question still lingered. So he approached his mom, "Mom, can anybody ever really see God?" 

"No, not really," she gently said. "God is a spirit and he dwells in our hearts, but we can never really see Him." 

Somewhat satisfied but still wondering, the youngster went on his way.  Not long afterwards, his saintly old grandfather took the little boy on a fishing trip. They were having a great time together. The sun was beginning to set with unusual splendor and the grandfather stared silently at the exquisite beauty unfolding before them.  On seeing the face of his grandfather reflecting such deep peace and contentment, the little boy thought for a moment and finally spoke hesitatingly, "Granddad, I--I-- wasn't going to ask anybody else, but I wonder if you can tell me the answer to something I've been wondering about a long time. Can anybody - can anybody ever really see God?"

The old man did not even turn his head.  A long moment slipped by before he finally answered. "Son," he quietly said. 

"It's getting so I can't see anything else."

                           Saul falls to the ground as he sees a bright light and hears a voice.

About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me.  I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?  (Acts 22:6,7)

Just like what Saul had encountered Jesus in the bible as a bright light, I too have encounter God in the same way one night in the year of 2008.  I was lying on bed and I was transcended.  My eyes were closed, but I could see very bright light and it flashes three times, as though taking photographs.  After that I hear sound, various sound like that of the wolves, and so on.  This continue until the early morning and the whole night I never sleep at all.  In the morning, I heard the sound of trumpet.  And it was the sound of victory over sins...

The Precious Gift

Photograph of a white dove spotted at my neigbourhood while our family was walking to church on 10 April 2010, my first time in my life encountering a real white dove.  

What is your Precious Gift?  

Once upon a time, when God had finished making the world, he wanted to leave behind a piece of His own divinity, a spark of His essence, a promise to man of what he could become, with effort. He looked for a place to hide this precious gift because He explained, "what man could find too easily would never be valued by him." 

"Then you must hide this gift on the highest mountain peak on earth," said one of his counselors. 

 God shook His head, "No, for man is an adventuresome creature and he will soon enough learn to climb the highest mountain peaks." 

 "Hide it then, O Great One, in the depths of the earth." 

 "I think not," said God. "for man will one day discover that he can dig into the deepest parts of the earth." 

 "In the middle of the ocean then, Master?" 

 God shook His head. "I've given man a brain.  You see, one day he'll learn to build ships and cross the mightiest oceans." 

 "Where then, Master?" cried His counselors. 

 God smiled, "I'll hide it where every man and woman will be able to find it if they look sincerely and deeply enough. I'll hide it in their heart."

Photograph of Jesus risen from the tomb on Easter day, photograph taken at Church of St Anthony of Padua on 4 April 2010

My precious gift is that I had found God after 38 years of my life.  Jesus came to me in the year 2008 when I encountered Him on my bed early in the morning when I woke up on 8 March 2008, international women day.  It is a gift that cannot be seen, and it is only to be felt in the heart... a valuable gift that cannot be bought with money.  To add on to what I had felt, I found the white dove and parallel to that, the church was decorated with the White Jesus arisen from the tomb.  What a real coincidence, fate or destiny that was already planned?  Jesus often taught in parables.  This is a parable that he had taught me!  The white dove walking with the spotted doves and black doves -- signified that the Master is walking with the sinners!  Jesus had saved my life, a sinner who had sinned!

Quotes about Abortion

                            Photograph of Peace, who was a victim of abortion.  Read her story...

I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is 'Abortion', because it is a war against the child... A direct killing of the innocent child, 'Murder' by the mother herself... And if we can accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love... And we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts... ~Mother Teresa  

Society does not need more children; but it does need more loved children. Quite literally, we cannot afford unloved children - but we pay heavily for them every day. There should not be the slightest communal concern when a woman elects to destroy the life of her thousandth-of-an-ounce embryo. But all society should rise up in alarm when it hears that a baby that is not wanted is about to be born. ~Garrett Hardin 

I am opposed to abortion and to government funding of abortions. We should not spend state funds on abortions because so many people believe abortion is wrong. ~Bill Clinton 

We don't like to kill our unborn; we need them to grow up and fight our wars. ~Marilyn Manson 

The cemetery of the victims of human cruelty in ourcentury is extended to include yet another vast cemetery, that of the unborn. ~Pope John Paul II 

 Abortion and racism are both symptoms of a fundamental human error. The error is thinking that when someone stands in the way of our wants, we can justify getting that person out of our lives. Abortion and racism stem from the same poisonous root, selfishness. ~Alveda King 

Every person has the right to have his life respected. This right shall be protected by law and, in general, from the moment of conception. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life. ~American Convention on Human Rights 

 ... we explained simply what contraception was; that abortion was the wrong way — no matter how early it was performed it was taking a life; that contraception was the better way, the safer way — it took a little time, a little trouble, but was well worth while in the long run, because life had not yet begun. ~Margaret Sanger 

When we look to the unborn child, the real issue is not when life begins, but when love begins. ~Robert Casey

Quotes About LIGHT

Just when we had crossed the road, Richard was the one who told us that the Traffic Lights were normal again. But when we need to cross the road, all the traffic lights did not function...

The black moment is the moment when the real message of transformation is going to come. At the darkest moment comes the light. ~Joseph Campbell

In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't. ~Blaise Pascal

Light comes to us unexpectedly and obliquely. Perhaps it amuses the gods to try us. They want to see whether we are asleep. ~H.M. Tomlinson

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. ~ Thomas Elva Edison

Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself. ~ Chinese Proverb

Winners never quit and quitters never win.

You've got to chase your dreams. ~ Earvin "Magic" Johnson

I would rather start a family than finish one. ~ Don Marquis

To us, Family means putting your arms around each other and being there. ~ Barbara Bush

All seasons are beautiful for the person who carries happiness within. ~ Horace Friess

Life is like riding a bicycle, you don't fall off unless you plan to stop peddling. ~ Claude Pepper

Friendship is one mind in two bodies. ~ Mencius

A failure is a man who has blundered, but is not able to cash in on the experience. ~ Elbert Hubbard

Every artist was first an amateur. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Who is more foolish, the child afraid of the dark or the man afraid of the light? ~Maurice Freehill

Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. ~Chinese Proverb

We are each gifted in a unique and important way. It is our privilege and our adventure to discover our own special light. ~Mary Dunbar

There are two ways of spreading light; to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. ~Edith Wharton

The hero is the one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by. The saint is the man who walks through the dark paths of the world, himself a light. ~Felix Adler

LIGHT Quotes

Imagine a world without lights. When darkness falls, we would not be able to see. This is a traffic junction which our family always use. The use of colours as in traffic lights, had enabled orderliness. On a busy road, the traffic light is a common tool of communication. When the traffic light spoils, as in the case above, WHO would want to give way?

Give light and people will find their own way.

Light is good from whatever lamp it shines.

Impatience never commanded success. ~ Edwin H Chapin

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds. ~ Francis Bacon

When anger rises, think of the consequences. ~ Confucius

Anger is never without a reason, but seldom a good one. ~ Benjamin Franklin

He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else. ~ Benjamin Franklin

Either you run the day or the day runs you. ~ Jim Rohn

Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value. ~ Albert Einstein

You learn as much from those who have failed as from those who have succeeded. ~ Michael Johnson

The shell must break before the bird can fly. ~ Tennyson

The best way to find yourself, is to lose yourself in the service of others. ~ Gandhi

We get to make a living; we give to make a life. ~ Winston Churchill

Kindness is a language which the dumb can speak, the deaf can understand. ~ C.N Bovee

Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. ~ Winston Churchill

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good. ~ Ann Landers

A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out. ~ Walter Winchell

A quarrel between friends, when made up, adds a new tie to friendship. ~ St Francis De Sales

You pile up enough tomorrows, and you'll find you've collected a lot of empty yesterdays. ~ Professor Harold Hill (The Music man)

Most quarrels amplify a misunderstanding. ~ Andre Gide

Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance. ~ Samuel Johnson

He who cannot light a fire knows nothing about love. ~ Finnish Proverb

Light is the symbol of truth. ~ James Russell Lowell

Quotations About The Soul II

Unless your heart, your soul, and your whole being are behind every decision you make, the words from your mouth will be empty, and each action will be meaningless. Truth and confidence are the roots of happiness.


There is one thing one has to have: either a soul that is cheerful by nature, or a soul made cheerful by work, love, art, and knowledge. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Music in the soul can be heard by the universe. ~Lao Tzu

Imagination is the eye of the soul. ~Joseph Joubert

Say not, "I have found the truth," but rather, "I have found a truth." Say not, "I have found the path of the soul." Say rather, "I have met the soul walking upon my path." For the soul walks upon all paths. The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed. The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals. ~Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

The only beautiful thing in the world whose beauty lasts for ever is a pure, fair soul. ~ Bram Stoker

True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness. ~ Albert Einstein

Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul. ~ Saint Augustine quotes


Ordinary riches can be stolen; real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you. ~ Oscar Wilde

What difference is there between us, save a restless dream that follows my soul but fears to come near you? ~ Khalil Gibran


The soul does not give itself up to despair until it has exhaused all illusions. ~ Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

What is soul? It's like electricity -- we don't really know what it is, but it's a force that can light a room. ~Ray Charles


Diseases of the soul are more dangerous and more numerous than those of the body. ~Cicero


Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened. ~Anatole France


The soul is placed in the body like a rough diamond; and must be polished, or the lustre of it will never appear. ~Daniel Defoe, The Education of Women


Love is a gift of one's inner most soul to another so both can be whole.

Quotations About The Soul I

Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it rest, heals the heart and makes it whole, flows from heaven to the soul.

In culture after culture, people believe that the soul lives on after death, that rituals can change the physical world and divine the truth, and that illness and misfortune are caused and alleviated by spirits, ghosts, saints ... and gods. ~ Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works


A house is a home when it shelters the body and comforts the soul. ~ Phillip Moffitt



Negativity is an addiction to the bleak shadow that lingers around every human form ... you can transfigure negativity by turning it toward the light of your soul. ~ John O'Donouhue


Art is a microscope which the artist fixes on the secrets of his soul, and shows to people these secrets which are common to all. ~ Leo Tolstoy


Soul shadows you everywhere. ~Anda Fiori


Be careless in your dress if you must, but keep a tidy soul. ~Mark Twain


Emotions are the colors of the soul. ~ Paul Young


A sensible man will remember that the eyes may be confused in two ways - by a change from light to darkness or from darkness to light; and he will recognize that the same thing happens to the soul. ~Plato


Until you know that life is interesting - and find it so - you haven't found your soul. ~Geoffrey Fisher

Each flower is a soul blossoming out to nature. ~ Gerard de Nerval


What your heart thinks is great, is great. The soul's emphasis is always right. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson


The soul is healed by being with children. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky



Friends will keep you sane, Love could fill your heart, A lover can warm your bed, but lonely is the soul without a mate. ~ David Pratt


The soul is born old but grows young. That is the comedy of life. And the body is born young and grows old. That is life's tragedy. ~ Oscar Wilde


You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche


Dreams are illustrations... from the book your soul is writing about you. ~ Marsha Norman

Excerpt From Life Of Sir Stamford Raffles II

Among the men who have established the political and commercial power of this country in the seas of India and China, no one would deny a foremost place to Stamford Raffles. This silent acquiescence is the tribute paid by national gratitude to the greatness of a name, when the precise nature of the man's work has been consigned to oblivion, or perhaps never appreciated. But the work in this case was an achievement well worth description for its own value, and not less noteworthy because accomplished by a humble individual in the teeth of personal prejudice and official opposition. Raffles owed nothing to favour or fortune; he was the architect of his own position and reputation; while the breadth of his views and the boldness of his deeds often brought him the censure of his narrow-minded and faint-hearted superiors. But the difficulties and malice which nearly crushed him during life enhance his posthumous fame, and to him will ever be given the chief, if not the sole, credit of instituting the measures which permanently assured our hold on the sea route to the Far East.

Excerpt From Life Of Sir Stamford Raffles - Clouds and Death


Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles, to give him his full name, was the only son of Benjamin Raffles, who at the time of his famous son's birth, was captain of a merchant vessel trading between London and the West Indies.

Thus closed suddenly, and under the shadow of ill-health, pecuniary losses, and personal disappointment, the career of Sir Stamford Raffles. In years he had only just entered the period of middle life, and the work he had performed, as well as the experience he had gained, would have entitled him to take a further prominent part in the affairs of the East. Had his life been prolonged, there can be little doubt that he would have won fresh fame as a statesman on the floor of the House of Commons, or as an administrator in some new station beyond the seas. He had done enough, however, in his brief, and almost meteroic career, to obtain a place among the few great intellects and brave spirits that have pointed out for this country the path to empire in Southern Asia. Opposition, prejudice, aclumny during his lifetime and since his death, forgetfulness, and the haste which prevents our realising that our Empire came to us by inheritance from our forefathers, have not undone his work or diminished his reputation.

What was his work? Let the reader throw back his mind and consider all that Raffles had done, written, and inspired in the twenty-one years between the day on which he left the home-country, a young man, serious but hopeful, half-educated, he said in his modesty, but employing his time on ship-board in learning Malay, resolute to succeed by his own merit, but still more resolute to promote the interests of England -- and that early summer morning when his wife found him dead by the foot of the stairs at Highwood. His rise in the official service of the Company was extraordinarily rapid.

The marvel is that his detractors were so few; and great must have been the merit, subtle must have been the charm of manner, that at that period disarmed the enmity of the privileged ranks of the services and made so many of them his friends and admirers. His success, the resolution with which he carried his own views and policy into effect, were the more remarkable, because he never put on the hollow aspect of humility, so often used as a screen for ambition.

Such was the spirit in which he accomplished his life's mission. Sanguine in temperament, quick in his judgment, fixed in his resolutions, courageous in the execution of his plans, and undaunted in the face of difficulty, Raffles revealed on all critical occasions those qualities which are essential to the man of action, whether he be a statesman or a soldier.

The founding of Singapore was a great achievement -- great by reason of the method and the attendant conditions of its accomplishment. It was also a definite and concrete performance which everyone can see and understand. But, after all, this single act was not the real claim of Stamford Raffles to rank in the front group of English statesmen.

We may well ask ourselves in conclusion, whether in these days of checks and counter-checks upon individual initiative, when democratic institutions and interdependent councils combine with the telegraph to render it difficult to fasten responsibility on any one short of some ill-defined central authority, it is possible for such men as Stamford Raffles to obtain and to turn to account the opportunities that fall to their lot for the national aggrandisement. And if the individual statesman and soldier cannot obtain the chance, how is this Empire to be carried on, how are the triumphs of the past to be repeated in the future history of the world? With, however, the example and career fresh in our minds of this great man, this buoyant English statesman, who would have said, in the words of Shakespeare, "Come the three corners of the world in arms, and we shall shock them," doubt and fear would be out of place. Not of such as Raffles was Tennyson's mind full when he wrote the lines --

"Pray God our greatness may not fail
Through craven fears of being great."

Excerpt From Life Of Sir Stamford Raffles I

Excerpt From Life Of Sir Stamford Raffles - Clouds and Death

Raffles had never been physically a strong man, and the little strength he possessed had been so sapped by the sustained and indefatigable labours which he undertook in the course of his public duty, that it is not surprising to find that his health was bad, and a constant source of anxiety to his relatives after his final return in 1824. He had never complained at that time of the effect of that climate which proved fatal to his first wife, his children, and his best friends -- one after another; but, none the less, it told its tale on him. It was not merely in repeated attacks of illness that this was shown, but in the difficulty of writing. His hand became cramped, and he suffered from pains in the head. His active and comprehensive mind was full of great schemes, but he had not the physical strength to carry them out.

There is no doubt that Sir Stamford Raffles was a man of a delicate and sensitive mind, as well as of a precarious constitution.

The story of the last eighteen months of the life of Sir Stamford Raffles is a sad one; and there has seldom, if ever, been a case of a man, who had done so much for his country, passing away under such a cloud of varied misfortunes as befell him, without a contributory act of his own. His courage and eagle spirit would no doubt have enabled him to bear up under these trials, and to have triumphed, as he had done before, over all opponents; but successive attacks, premonitory of the malady that killed him, sapped his vigour, and exhausted, with each fresh effort, the remaining powers of his body.

The following extracts from his correspondence with Dr Raffles will show the reader how much he suffered during the last year of his life. On the 24th May 1825, he wrote: "Thank God I can return a tolerably satisfactory answer to your kind inquiry by saying, that though still rather weak and nervous, I am again getting about. My attack was sudden and unexpected, but fortunately was not apoplectic, as was at first feared. I was inanimate for about an hour, but on being bled, got better, and have had no return"; and again on 6th June, he wrote:"This last attack has so shaken my confidence and nerves, that I have hardly spirit at the present moment to enter upon public life, and prudence dictates the necessity of my keeping as quiet as I can until I completely re-establish my health." On the 10th Novemeber in the same year, he wrote:"I have been confined to my bed the whole of the day with one of my most violent headaches", and on the 7th February 1826 he said,"I have, upon the whole, very much improved in my general health than I have enjoyed since my return to England... I have, however, had, and still have, a good many annoyances and inquietudes, which have occasionally disturbed my peace of mind, owing to the misconduct and distresses of friends; but I hope these will soon be over."

The Gentleman's Magazine, for July 1826, gives the following particulars of Sir Stamford's death, which occurred early in the morning of the 5th of that month, the day before his forty-fifth birthday,"He had passed the preceding day in the bosom of his family, and excepting a bilious attack under which he had laboured for some days, there was ntohing in his appearance to create the least apprehension that the fatal hour was so near. Sir Stamford had retired to rest on the Tuesday evening (4th July) between ten and eleven o'clock, his usual hour when in the country. On the following morning at 5 0'clock, it being discovered that he had left his room before the time at which he generally rose, 6 0'clock, Lady Raffles immediately rose, and found him lying at the bottom of a flight of stairs in a state of complete insensibility. Medical aid was promptly procured, and every means resorted to, to restore animation, but the vital spark had fled. The body was opened, under the direction of Sir Everard Home, the same day, who pronounced his death to have been caused by an apoplectic attack, beyond the control of all human power. It was likewise apparent that the sufferings of the decesased must, for some time past, have been most intense." In the course of an appreciative notice the writer concludes as follows:" Considered as a whole, the character of the late Sir T. Stamford Raffles displays little, if anything, to censure, and much to applaud. His name will live in British History, not among warriors, but among the benefactors of mankind, as a philanthropist and statesman of the very first eminence."

Quotation About Reading V

The world of books is the most remarkable creation of man:
nothing else that he builds ever lasts monuments fall; nations perish;
civilization grow old and die out; new races build others.
But in the world of books are volumes that have seen
this happen again and again and yet live on.
Still young, still as fresh as the day they were written,
still telling men's hearts, of the hearts of men centuries dead.
~ Clarence Day



There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away,
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry.
~ Emily Dickinson


If I read a book that impresses me,
I have to take myself firmly in hand,
before I mix with other people;
otherwise they would think my
mind rather queer. ~ Anne Frank


The greatest gift is the passion for reading.
It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites,
it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind.
It is a moral illumination. ~ Elizabeth Hardwick


Never judge a book by its movie. ~ J. W. Eagan

There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island. ~ Walt Disney

It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own.
~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle


What's a book? Everything or nothing. The eye that sees it all. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson


A book is a fragile creature. It suffers the wear of time, it fears rodents, the elements, clumsy hands. ~ Umberto Eco


Don't join the book burners. Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book. ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower


When I get a little money, I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food and clothes. ~ Desiderius Erasmus


Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers. ~ Charles W. Eliot


The best of a book is not the thought which it contains, but the thought which it suggests;
just as the charm of music dwells not in the tones but in the echoes of our hearts.
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

Be as careful of the books you read, as of the company you keep,
for your habits and character will be as much influenced by the former as the latter.
~ Paxton Hood


What a school thinks about its library is a measure of what it feels about education.
~ Harold Howe


The proper study of mankind is books. ~ Aldous Huxley

Quotation About Reading IV

I've traveled the world twice over,
Met the famous; saints and sinners,
Poets and artists, kings and queens,
Old stars and hopeful beginners,
I've been where no-one's been before,
Learned secrets from writers and cooks
All with one library ticket
To the wonderful world of books.



A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever. ~ Martin Farquhar Tupper


My books are water; those of the great geniuses are wine -- everybody drinks water. ~ Mark Twain

The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them. ~ Mark Twain


The great American novel has not only already been written,
it has already been rejected. ~ Frank Dane


A novel is never anything, but a philosophy put into images. ~ Albert Camus


The closest we will ever come to an orderly universe is a good library. ~ Ashleigh Brilliant


I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library. ~ Jorge Luis Borges


When we read a story, we inhabit it.
The covers of the book are like a roof and four walls.
What is to happen next will take place within the four walls of the story.
And this is possible because the story's voice makes everything its own. ~ John Berger


All the best stories in the world are but one story in reality -- the story of escape.
It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape. ~ Arthur Christopher Benson


A truly great book should be read in youth,
again in maturity and once more in old age,
as a fine building should be seen by morning light,
at noon and by moonlight.
~ Robertson Davies


The way a book is read- which is to say,
the qualities a reader brings to a book-
can have as much to do with its worth
as anything the author puts into it. ~ Norman Cousins


The book salesman should be honored
because he brings to our attention, as a rule, the very
books we need most and neglect most. ~ Frank Crane


It was clear that the books owned the shop rather than the other
way about. Everywhere they had run wild and taken possession of
their habitat, breeding and multiplying and clearly lacking any strong
hand to keep them down. ~ Agatha Christie

Quotation About Books III

We get no good
By being ungenerous, even to a book,
And calculating profits,
-- so much help
By so much reading. it is rather when
We gloriously forget ourselves and plunge
Soul-forward, headlong, into a book's profound,
Impassioned for its beauty and salt of truth --
'T is then we get the right good from a book.
~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning


Books, not which afford us a cowering enjoyment,
but in which each thought is of unusual daring;
such as an idle man cannot read, and a timid one would not be
entertained by, which even make us dangerous to existing institution --
such call I good books.
~ Henry David Thoreau



The Brahmins say that in their books there are many
predictions of times in which it will rain.
But press those books as strongly as you can,
you can not get out of them a drop of water.
So you can not get out of all the books that contain
the best precepts the smallest good deed.
~ Count Leo Tolstoy


The power of a text is different when it is read from when it is copied out.
Only the copied text thus commands the soul of him who is occupied with it,
whereas the mere reader never discovers the new aspects
of his inner self that are opened by the text,
that road cut through the interior jungle forever
closing behind it: because the reader follows the movement
of his mind in the free flight of day-dreaming,
whereas the copier submits it to command.
~ Walter Benjamin


A conventional good read is usually a bad read,
a relaxing bath in what we know already.
A true good read is surely an act of innovative creation in which we,
the readers, become conspirators.
~ Malcolm Bradbury


Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted;
nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed,
and some few to be chewed and digested:
that is, some books are to be read only in parts,
others to be read, but not curiously, and some few
to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.
~ Francis Bacon


Surviving and thriving as a professional today demands
two new approaches to the written word.
First, it requires a new approach to orchestrating information,
by skillfully choosing what to read and what to ignore.
Second, it requires a new approach to integrating information, by
reading faster and with greater comprehension.
~ Jimmy Calano


Readers may be divided into four classes:
1.) Sponges, who absorb all that they read and return it in
nearly the same state, only a little dirtied.
2.) Sand-glasses, who retain nothing and are content to get
through a book for the sake of getting through the time.
3.) Strain-bags, who retain merely the dregs of what they read.
4.) Mogul diamonds, equally rare and valuable, who profit by
what they read, and enable others to profit by it also.
~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge


There are books so alive that you're always afraid that
while you weren't reading, the book has gone and changed,
has shifted like a river; while you went on living, it went on living too,
and like a river moved on and moved away.
No one has stepped twice into the same river.
But did anyone ever step twice into the same book?
~ Marina Tsvetaeva


What I like best is a book that's at least funny once in a while...
What really knocks me out is a book that,
when you're all done reading it,
you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours
and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it.
That doesn't happen much, though.
~ J. D. Salinger


To use books rightly, is to go to them for help;
to appeal to them when our own knowledge and power fail;
to be led by them into wider sight and purer conception than our own,
and to receive from them the united sentence of the judges
and councils of all time, against our solitary and unstable opinions.
~ John Ruskin


The real risks for any artist are taken in pushing the work
to the limits of what is possible, in the attempt to increase the sum
of what it is possible to think. Books become good when they
go to this edge and risk falling over it --when they endanger
the artist by reason of what he has, or has not, artistically dared.
~ Salman Rushdie

Quotation About Books II

A good book is the purest essence of a human soul. ~ Thomas Carlyle





Books, books, books had found the secret of a garret-room
piled high with cases in my father's name;
Piled high, packed large, --where, creeping in and out
among the giant fossils of my past, like some small nimble mouse
between the ribs of a mastodon, I nibbled here and there
at this or that box, pulling through the gap, in heats
of terror, haste, victorious joy, the first book first.
And how I felt it beat under my pillow, in the morning's dark.
An hour before the sun would let me read!
My books!
~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning



A book is good company.
It is full of conversation without loquacity.
It comes to your longing with full instruction,
but pursues you never.
~ Henry Ward Beecher


That is a good book which is opened with expectation and closed in profit. ~ Amos Bronson Alcott


She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain. ~ Louisa May Alcott



When we read a story, we inhabit it. The covers of the book are like a roof and four walls. What is to happen next will take place within the four walls of the story.
And this is possible because the story's voice makes everything its own. ~ John Berger


There is no past, so long as book shall live! ~Edward Bulwer-Lytton



There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them. ~ Joseph Brodsky


Books are men of higher stature; the only men that speak aloud for future times to hear. ~ E.S. Barrett


Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man far better than through mortal friends. ~ Dawn Adams


I used to walk to school with my nose buried in a book. ~ Coolio


I often feel sorry for people who don't read good books; they are missing a chance to lead an extra life. ~ Scott Corbett


The oldest books are still only just out to those who have not read them. ~ Samuel Butler


In books lies the soul of the whole past time. ~ Thomas Carlyle


All that Mankind has done, thought, gained or been -- it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of Books. ~ Thomas Carlyle


The best effect of any book is that it excites the reader to self activity. ~ Thomas Carlyle


Books are standing counselors and preachers, always at hand, and always disinterested; having this advantage over oral instructors, that they are ready to repeat their lesson as often as we please. ~ Oswald Chambers


After all manner of professors have done their best for us, the place we are to get knowledge is in books. The true university of these days is a collection of books. ~ Thomas Carlyle


Books are masters who instruct us without rods or ferules,
without words or anger, without bread or money.
If you approach them, they are not asleep; if you seek them,
they do not hide; if you blunder, they do not scold;
if you are ignorant, they do not laugh at you.
~ Richard De Bury


He that loves a book will never want a faithful friend,
a wholesome counselor, a cheerful companion, an effectual comforter.
By study, by reading, by thinking, one may innocently
divert and pleasantly entertain himself,
as in all weathers, as in all fortunes. ~ Barrow

Quotation About Books

People die, but books never die.


Beware of the man of one book. ~ Thomas Aquinas


There is no friend as loyal as a book. ~ Ernest Hemingway


Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn. ~ Joseph Addison


A book is like a garden carried in the pocket. ~ Chinese proverb


Books are the blessed chloroform of the mind. ~ Robert Chambers


A good title is the title of a successful book. ~ Raymond Chandler


Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house. ~ Henry Ward Beecher


A room without books is like a body without a soul. ~ Marcus T. Cicero


Everywhere I have sought rest and not found it, except sitting in a corner by myself with a little book. ~ Thomas Kempis


The man who is fond of books is usually a man of lofty thought, and of elevated opinions. ~ Christopher Dawson


Books, I found, had the power to make time stand still, retreat or fly into the future. ~ Jim Bishop


The failure to read good books both enfeebles the vision and strengthens our most fatal tendency -- the belief that the here and now is all there is. ~ Allan Bloom


A wonderful thing about a book, in contrast to a computer screen, is that you can take it to bed with you. ~ Daniel J. Boorstin


Books are not men and yet they stay alive. ~ Stephen Vincent Benet


A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors. ~ Henry Ward Beecher


Books give not wisdom where none was before. But where some is, there reading makes it more. ~ John Harington

Quotation About Reading III

Learning to read has been reduced to a process of mastering
a series of narrow, specific, hierarchical skills.
Where armed-forces recruits learn the components of a rifle
or the intricacies of close order drill "by the numbers,"
recruits to reading learn its mechanics sound
by sound and word by word.
~ Jacquelyn Gross


It is no more necessary that a man should remember the different
dinners and suppers which have made him healthy, than the different
books which have made him wise. Let us see the results of good food
in a strong body, and the results of great reading in a full and powerful mind.
~ Sydney Smith


Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. ~ Richard Steele


Digressions, incontestably, are the sunshine; they are the life, the soul of reading. ~ Laurence Sterne


The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. ~ Alvin Toffler


If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson


The successful Accelerated Reader is able to read larger than normal "blocks" or "bites" of the printed page with each eye stop. He has accepted, without reservation, the philosophy that
the most important benefit of reading is the gaining of information, ideas, mental "picture" and entertainment -- not the fretting over words. He has come to the realization that words
in and of themselves are for the most part insignificant. ~ Wade E. Cutler


Our high respect for a well read person is praise enough for literature. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson


Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakably meant for his ear. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson


I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready,
and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet got ourselves. ~ E. M. Forster


Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures. ~ Jessamyn West


The person who deserves most pity is a lonesome one
on a rainy day who doesn't know how to read. ~ Benjamin Franklin


Fiction is like a spider's web, attached ever so lightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners. ~ Virginia Woolf


Choose an author as you choose a friend. ~ Sir Christopher Wren


When I discovered libraries, it was like having Christmas every day. ~ Jean Fritz


I was born with the impression that what happened in books was much more reasonable, and interesting, and real, in some ways, than what happened in life. ~ Anne Tyler


No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance. ~ Atwood H. Townsend


Education... has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading, an easy prey to sensations and cheap appeals. ~ G. M. Trevelyan