RELATIONSHIPS A loving person lives in a loving world. A hostile person lives in a hostile world. Everyone you meet is your mirror.
Ken Keyes, Jr.
A single arrow is easily broken, but not ten in a bundle.
Japanese Proverb
A stranger is a friend whose acquaintance you haven’t made yet.
A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.
Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601–1658)
An egotist talks to you about himself, a gossip talks to you about others, and a brilliant conversationalist talks to you about you.
Any deep relationship to another human being requires watchfulness and nourishment; otherwise, it is taken from us. And we cannot recapture it. This is a form of having and not having that is the root of innumerable tragedies.
Paul Johannes Oskar Tillich (1886–1965)
Anyone who builds a relationship on less than openness and honesty is building on sand.
John Powell
Christ was willing to suffer; do you dare to complain? Christ had enemies and detractors; so you want everyone to be your friend and benefactor?
Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380–1471)
Do good to your friend to keep him, to your enemy to gain him.
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)
Don’t expect your neighbor to be better than your neighbor’s neighbor.
Every person we meet in the course of a day is a dignified, essential human soul, and we are guilty of gross inhumanity when we snub or abuse him.
Joshua Loth Liebman (1907–1948)
Everyone knows how to say good-bye but not everyone knows when.
Fear that man who fears not God.
God rejoices when one beggar scratches another.
Yiddish Proverb
Half the misery in the world comes because one person demands of another a complete understanding, which is absolutely impossible.
Oswald Chambers (1874–1917)
Have a deaf ear for unkind remarks about others, and a blind eye to trivial faults.
Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832)
He who accepts nothing has nothing to return.
German Proverb
He who goes with wolves learns to howl.
Spanish Proverb
He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, and he who has one enemy shall meet him everywhere.
Ali Ben Abu Taleb
He who injured you is either stronger or weaker. If he is weaker, spare him; if he is stronger, spare yourself.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (c. 4 b.c.–a.d. 65)
Hearts may agree though heads differ.
Heaven’s eternal wisdom has decreed that man should ever stand in need of man.
Theocritus (c. 310–250 b.c.)
Human freedom is a precious thing and we react decisively against those who would restrict it or take it from us.
James C. Dobson (1936– )
I likened you to those I saw you with.
Maltese Proverb
If men would consider not so much wherein they differ, as wherein they agree, there would be far less uncharitableness and angry feeling in the world.
Joseph Addison (1672–1719)
If we knew everything that was ever said about us and at the same time we took every word at face value, we would remain friends with no one.
Hugh Prather
If we try to find lasting joy in any human relationship, it will end in vanity, something that passes like a morning cloud. The true joy of a man’s life is in his relationship to God.
Oswald Chambers (1874–1917)
If you approach each new person in a spirit of adventure, you will find yourself endlessly fascinated by the new channels of thought and experience and personality that you encounter.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)
If you expect perfection from people, your whole life is a series of disappointments, grumblings, and complaints. If, on the contrary, you pitch your expectations low, taking folks as the inefficient creatures which they are, you are frequently surprised by having them perform better than you had hoped.
Bruce Fairfield Barton (1886–1967)
If you expect to find peace in the friendship of any person, you are likely to be disappointed. But if you are intimate with God, the disloyalty or death of a friend will not crush you.
Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380–1471)
If you ride a horse, sit close and tight,
If you ride a man, sit easy and light.
If you want enemies, excel others; if you want friends, let others excel you.
Charles Caleb Colton (1780–1832)
It is a foolish sheep that makes the wolf his confessor.
It is best to be with those in time we hope to be with in eternity.
Sir Thomas Fuller (1608–1661)
It is better to weep with wise men than to laugh with fools.
Spanish Proverb
It is impossible to satisfy everyone.
Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380–1471)
Jest with an ass, and he will flap you in the face with his tail.
Leaning too heavily on another person, regardless of how committed he or she seems, is to set ourselves up for disappointment.
James C. Dobson (1936– )
Let us be first to give a friendship sign, to nod first, smile first, speak first, and if such a thing is necessary—forgive first.
Make happy those who are near, and those who are far will come.
Chinese Proverb
Man shall commune with all creatures to his profit, but enjoy God alone. That is why no human being can be a permanent source of happiness to another.
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961)
Most people are just like cats in that if you rub them the right way, they will purr. But if you rub them the wrong way, they will bite and scratch.
William Ross
My idea of an agreeable person is a person who agrees with me.
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)
One way to get rid of an enemy is to turn him into a friend.
Only the person who has faith in himself is able to be faithful to others.
Erich Fromm (1900–1980)
Our opinion of others depends far more than we like to think on what we believe their opinion of us is.
Sydney J. Harris (1917–1986)
Our sociology reflects our theology.
Rebecca Manley Pippert
Raised voices lower esteem. Hot tempers cool friendships. Loose tongues stretch truth. Swelled heads shrink influence. Sharp words dull respect.
William Arthur Ward (1812–1882)
See everything; overlook a great deal; correct a little.
Pope John xxiii (1881–1963)
Seek not every quality in one individual.
Confucius (c. 551–479 b.c.)
Sojourn in every place as if you meant to spend your life there, never omitting an opportunity of doing a kindness, speaking a true word, or making a friend.
John Ruskin (1819–1900)
Some people can stay longer in an hour than others can in a week.
William Dean Howells (1837–1920)
Sparrows should not dance with cranes; their legs are too short.
Danish Proverb
The healthiest relationships are those that breathe—that move out and then move back together.
James C. Dobson (1936– )
The injuries we do and those we suffer are seldom weighed in the same scales.
Aesop (fl. c. 550 b.c.)
The man or woman who does not know God demands an infinite satisfaction from other human beings which they cannot give.
Oswald Chambers (1874–1917)
The more I demand the love of others, the less I deserve that love.
François Fénelon (1651–1715)
The real . . . is always checked with failure, imperfection, and even wrong. So instead of biting and devouring one another, let’s support individual freedom as we serve one another in love.
Charles R. Swindoll (1934– )
The reason a dog has so many friends is that he wags his tail instead of his tongue.
The rotten apple spoils his companions.
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)
The world is a collection of cogs; each depends on the other.
Jewish Proverb
There are areas in our lives where in our effort to be right we may go wrong:
1. When in our determination to be bold we become brazen.
2. When in our desire to be frank we become rude.
3. When in our effort to be watchful we become suspicious.
4. When we seek to be serious and become somber.
5. When we mean to be conscientious and become over scrupulous.
A. W. Tozer (1897–1963)
There are some men and women in whose company we are always at our best. All the best stops in our nature are drawn out, and we find a music in our souls never felt before.
William Henry Drummond (1854–1907)
There can be no happiness equal to the joy of finding a heart that understands.
Victor Robinsoll
There’s a great deal of difference between go and let’s go.
Those who think they have no need of others become unreasonable.
Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747)
To be right with God has often meant to be in trouble with men.
A. W. Tozer (1897–1963)
To handle yourself, use your head. To handle others, use your heart.
Donald Laird
To his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs.
Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
To live fully, we must learn to use things and love people not love things and use people.
John Powell
To my God, a heart of flame; to my fellowmen, a heart of love; to myself, a heart of steel.
Saint Augustine of Hippo (354–430)
Unselfishness recognizes infinite variety of types as a delightful thing, accepts it, acquiesces in it, and enjoys it.
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
We are born helpless. As soon as we are fully conscious we discover loneliness. We need others physically, emotionally, intellectually. We need them if we are to know anything, even ourselves.
C. S. Lewis (1898–1963)
We are far more liable to catch the vices than the virtues of our associates.
Denis Diderot (1713–1784)
We are interested in others when they are interested in us.
Publilius Syrus (First Century b.c.)
We often refuse to accept an idea merely because the tone of voice in which it has been expressed is unsympathetic to us.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844–1900)
When a dove begins to associate with crows, its feathers remain white but its heart grows black.
German Proverb
When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bustling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity.
Dale Carnegie (1888–1955)
When one is a stranger to oneself, then one is estranged from others too.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906– )
When we honestly consider the well-being of others, we become truly rich in the deepest sense.
Denis Waitley
When you have Christ, you are rich. He is enough. He will provide everything you need so you won’t have to count on others without him. People change and fail. You cannot depend on them. Those that are for you today may be against you tomorrow. They are as variable as the wind. But Christ is eternally faithful.
Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380–1471)
Wherever our life touches yours, we help or hinder . . . wherever your life touches ours, you make us stronger or weaker. . . . There is no escape—man drags man down, or man lifts man up.
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915)
Write injuries in dust, benefits in marble.
French Proverb
You can choose to be a bag of marbles . . . independent, hard, loud, unmarked, and unaffected by others. Or you can be a bag of grapes . . . fragrant, soft, blending, mingling, flowing into one another’s lives. Marbles are made to be counted and kept. Grapes are made to be bruised and used. Marbles scar and clank. Grapes yield and cling.
Charles R. Swindoll (1934– )
You can’t spell brothers without at the same time spelling others.
Your opinion of others is apt to be their opinion of you.
B. C. Forbes
