“Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good, too.”
(Yogi Berra, 1925-2015)
Here is a source of some other “Yogi-isms”:
“50 Greates Yogi Berra Quotes” at
USA Today.
When I was young, a poem that held a lot of inspiration for me was “the paradoxical commandments”. This contained a series of statements to the effect that the good you do will be destroyed, but do it anyway. For example, “What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.”
To this I would add a line: “if you aspire to holiness, you will fail, and others will call you a hypocrite. Aspire to holiness anyway.”
The full text of that poem is below. It has often been mistakenly attributed to Mother Theresa (a version was published in her book A Simple Path, where it was said to be from a sign posted on a wall).
The original collection of sayings were created by a college student named Kent M. Keith and published in 1968 in a pamphlet titled “The Silent Revolution: Dynamic Leadership in the Student Council”.
(Source: The Quote Investigator.)
The Paradoxical Commandments
People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
“The more excellent any thing is, the more will be the counterfeits of it.” Jonathan Edwards (1703 – 1753)
“…she taught me that we are the family that love built. We have no room for hating, so we have to forgive. I pray God on your soul.”
–Sister of DePayne Middleton Doctor, quoted in the Washington Post.
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
Source: Strength to Love, a collection of sermons and essays published in 1963.
Do not curse the darkness, light a torch instead.
Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day”
HENRI J.M.NOUWEN, Dutch priest, professor and writer