Weekend Words: Gift
"Conceit is God's gift to little men."
Happy Holidays from Weekend Words.
Conceit is God’s gift to little men.
—Bruce Barton
Anyone can revolt. It is more difficult silently to obey our own inner promptings, and to spend our lives finding sincere and fitting means of expression for our temperament and our gifts.
—Georges Rouault
Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.
—William Shakespeare, Hamlet
Reverie is not a mind vacuum. It is rather the gift of an hour which knows the plenitude of the soul.
—Gaston Bachelard
My fairest, my espoused, my latest found,
Heaven’s last best gift, my ever new delight.
—John Milton, Paradise Lost
The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.
—Martin Luther King, Jr.
Gifts are like hooks.
—Marcus Valerius Martialis
There is only one real deprivation, I decided this morning, and that is not to be able to give one’s gifts to those one loves most.
—May Sarton
God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers,
And thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face,
A gauntlet with a gift in it.
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh
I know death is coming, and I do not fear it. I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death as the same state. I am grateful for the gifts of intelligence, love, wonder and laughter. You can’t say it wasn’t interesting.
—Roger Ebert
Enemies’ gifts are no gifts and do no good.
—Sophocles, Ajax
When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking.
—Albert Einstein
Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting with the gift of speech.
—Simonides
I know starting careers in troubled times is a challenge, but it is also a privilege. Because it’s moments like these that force us to try harder, dig deeper and to discover gifts we never knew we had. To find the greatness that lies within each of us. So don’t ever shy away from that endeavor. Don’t stop adding to your body of work. I can promise that you will be the better for that continued effort as will be this nation that we all love.
—Barack Obama, Arizona State Commencement Speech (2009)
