Status Updates From The Quest for Meekness and ...

“Learn to pause…the office of reason is to govern the passions, but then we must give time to act, and not suffer the tongue to overrun it.”

“We must also mortify the desire of the applause of men as altogether impertinent to our true happiness. If we have learned not to value ourselves by their good word, we shall not much disturb ourselves for their ill word.”

“Those who think they stand fast know not how soon they may be shaken and overthrown, and, therefore, we must treat those that are overthrown in a fault with the same tenderness and compassion that we would wish to find if it were our own case.”

"But while you are governing others, learn to govern yourselves, and do not disorder your own souls under the pretense of keeping order in your families."

“The body is called the sheath or scabbard of the soul. How often does an envious fretful soul, like a sharp knife, cut its own sheath, and as they say of the vipers brood, eat its own way out: all which meekness happily prevents.”

“Disorderly passions are like stormy winds in the soul; they toss and hurry it, and often split or strand or overset it; they move it ‘as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind.’ Meekness will silence the noise, control the force, moderate the impetus, and correct all undue and disorderly transports.”

“Those who find themselves wronged and aggrieved think they may have permission to speak, but it is better to be silent than to speak amiss and make work for repentance.”

“As it is the work of temperance to moderate our natural appetites toward those things that are pleasing to sense, so it is the work of meekness to moderate our natural passions against those things that are displeasing to sense.”