Paul Stout

“You're meant to be helping people.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Lost Metal

“What a lovely thing a rose is!"

He walked past the couch to the open window and held up the drooping stalk of a moss-rose, looking down at the dainty blend of crimson and green. It was a new phase of his character to me, for I had never before seen him show any keen interest in natural objects.

"There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as religion," said he, leaning with his back against the shutters. "It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its color are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Naval Treaty - a Sherlock Holmes Short Story

“I have wept in the night
At my shortness of sight
That to others' needs made me blind,
But I never have yet
Had a twinge of regret
For being a little too kind.”
― C.R. Gibson

“The Roman empire lasted 450 years by granting citizenship and leadership opportunities to people of all customs and religions.
The Ottoman empire lasted 500 years, and tolerated local customs and religions.
The Third Reich lasted 8 years.”
― Brock M. Stout, Let Get Along, Let's Make Money: Diversity, Globalization, and Personal Success