Sure Happy It’s Thursday! Good morning, Digital Neighbors! How about a few quotes for your morning pondering? I was thumbing through the Forbes Book of Quotations: 10,000 Thoughts on the Business of Life and landed on the section about knowledge. Here’s a handful of quotes to whet your whistle on the value of knowledge. While knowledge is not wisdom—which comes from reflection, introspection, and for many of us, faith (a gift of God born of prayer)—knowledge is born of our study and understanding of reality.
We get more out of life by paying attention. Knowledge turns on the light of our comprehension, and what was once hidden in plain sight before us is now acknowledged in various degrees and ways. The magical world of reading is the springboard to untold knowledge. A good friend of mine is an avid reader; I admire his ability to devour books. While I tend to be more of an audiobook person these days, reading is an amazing gift to possess. We will never face boredom (except at meetings!) if we keep our curiosity alive and ask the questions that awaken a desire for knowledge and understanding. Well, before you have too much to read, random passerby, off to the quotes! Have a great Thursday!
“I find that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking up something and finding something else on the way.” — Franklin P. Adams
“To wisdom belongs the intellectual apprehension of eternal things; to knowledge, the rational knowledge of temporal things.” — St. Augustine
“People who think they know it all are especially annoying to those of us who do.” — Anonymous
“I’ve learned one thing—people who know the least anyways seem to know it the loudest.” — Andy Capp (often attributed via Al Capp, the cartoonist)
“A greater poverty than that caused by lack of money is the poverty of unawareness. Men and women go about the world unaware of the beauty, the goodness, the glories in it. Their souls are poor. It is better to have a poor pocketbook than to suffer from a poor soul.” — Thomas Dreier
Ted Goodman, Forbes Book of Quotations: 10,000 Thoughts on the Business of Life.
Today marks the three hundred and thirtieth birthday of the Frenchman François-Marie Arouet, better known by his nom de plume, Voltaire (1694-1778).
Born into a bourgeois family during the reign of Louis XIV, the “Sun King” (r. 1643-1715), Voltaire suffered tragedy at a young age when his mother died. Never close with his father or brother, Voltaire exhibited a rebellious attitude toward authority from his youth. His brilliant mind was fostered in the care of the Society of Jesus, who introduced him to the joys of literature and theater. Despite his later criticisms against the Church, Voltaire, throughout his life, fondly recalled his dedicated Jesuit teachers.
Although he spent time as a civil servant in the French embassy to the Hague, Voltaire’s main love was writing—an endeavor where he excelled in various genres, including poetry, which led to his appointment as the royal court poet for King Louis XV. Widely recognized as one of the greatest French writers, and even hyperbolically referred to by ...
Padre - Tom Miller invites you to a Coffee Talk, Speakeasies, Schmoozes, Tea Times, Afterhours and other gatherings.
https://teams.live.com/meet/93792382189049?p=DiBHsYfuECPgDrG7vO
2026 Coffee Talk with the ADD Irregulars
Thursday, January 1, 2026
6:00 AM - 8:00 AM (CST)
Occurs every day starting 1/1 until 12/31/2027
Coffee Talk - Daily beginning at 6:00 AM Central Time Zone - USA
White Pilled Wednesday - A break from the heaviness of news and current events to focus upon things more personal & positive for the first hour of Coffee Talk.
Afternoon Chats - Most Tuesday, Friday & Sundays 2:00 PM Central
Other chats as posted in the community.
Happy Friday, Digital Neighbors!! Slept in a little this morning. Woke up at my ordinary time, hit the hour timer, and wandered back into short, incoherent dreamland. It was a good hour to try and get a little more rest after a long day yesterday. We had a good staff team-building day with personal prayer and then looking at the DISC tool as a way to appreciate our gifts as we work together for the good of our parish family.
Had a meeting in the evening to explore using our auditorium for an Emergency Overnight Shelter in the winter for the homeless and unhoused in our local area. Lots of potential, lots of work if that is to come to fruition. As I mentioned last night, this is where the rubber hits the road on personal charity. People feel comfortable giving money to support charities, but the possibility of hosting and staffing one is way out of the comfort zone for most. Prayer and time will tell.
Off to some “ifferisms” for your Friday cup of Joe.
If you get gloomy, just take an ...
The Beautiful
Said the Disciple to the Lover, “Sir, before I left the world I heard certain men who were held in high esteem and thought to know the will of the Beloved say that those who loved the Beautiful did not love the Beloved but loved idols, yet in the Garden of the Beloved we are ever striving to create beauty for the pleasure of the Beloved. Were they then speaking the truth?”
The Lover answered, “Those who said this had never glimpsed the form of the Beloved nor ever truly sought Him, for all beauty is but the reflection of the beauty of the Beloved, although seen very dimly as in a dark and faulty mirror, even as all goodness is a dim reflection of the goodness of the Beloved. So it is that those who love beauty and goodness recognize dimly in them the form of the Beloved and though often in ignorance those who are seeking the Beautiful and the Good are seeking after the Beloved.”
