gifts

Realize that the privilege to work is a gift. Love of work is success. Be thankful that every morning that you get up that you have some thing that must be done (whether you like it or not).

I am thinking of the Danish sculptor of great fame, Thorvaldsen, who chose to be buried in the midst of his work-not in a cathedral or a cemetery, but in a museum among the monuments of his own making- in the midst of his statuary; and there what he made and what he did with his life surrounds him. He did not theorize upon sculpturing, only, but with his hands and with his creative gift he fashioned those things and he lies there in the midst of his works, as we all shall do someday-and it will not be the theories or the discussions or the speculations or the set of principles or the set of commandments that shall save us. We shall be no better than we are. We are no better than the tithing we pay, no better than the teaching we do, no better than the service we give, no better than the commandments we keep, no better than the lives we live, and we shall have a bright remembrance of these things and we shall, in a sense, lie down in the midst of what we have done when that time comes.

Love is the greatest gift that one generation can leave to another.

There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts.

A woman who utters such disgusting and depressing noise has no right to be anywhere, no right to live. Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech, that your native language is the language of Shakespeare and Milton and The Bible. Don't sit there crooning like a bilious pigeon.

People with great gifts are easy to find, but symmetrical and balanced ones never.

He is a good man who can receive a gift well.

The only gift is a portion of thyself . . . the poet brings his poem; the shepherd his lamb. . . .

He presents me with what is always an acceptable gift who brings me news of a great thought before unknown. He enriches me without impoverishing himself.

The manner of giving is worth more than the gift.