Truth Matters. Trustworthiness Matters. Truth matters and it’s your moral responsibility to find it. Trustworthiness matters and it’s your moral duty to insist on it. Never in my lifetime has truth been more important or more elusive. Though hard to find, within every mountain of careless claims, unsubstantiated assertions, fallacious reasoning and outright lies there are true facts and credible …
Best Thoughts Ever on Making a Difference - Being Nice & Talking to People
What can be more meaningful and fulfilling than making a positive difference in this world by making a difference in the lives we touch? It is the essence of living a life that matter. As the following story illustrates it is so much easier than we might think and it’s something we all can do every day of the year. …
Best Thoughts Ever on the Essentials of Ethics Education
Whether one calls it values education, moral education, character education or ethics education, the goal is to help young people develop sustainable attitudes, beliefs and habits that translate into personal integrity, moral strength and, most of all, positive behaviors. The Need for Moral Judgment: While there are many ways to approach ethics education, effective methods must emphasize the importance and …
Best Thoughts Ever on the Power of Character: Part 1
Suppose you saved the life of a leprechaun, and in gratitude, he said he would give the man your daughter will marry one exceptional quality of your choosing. This man could be very smart, enormously rich, remarkably good-looking, unusually strong and athletic, highly creative and artistic, or singularly competent — or he could possess extraordinary character. What would you choose? Now suppose …
Best Thoughts Ever on Generosity and Gratitude: The Gift of Water
Long ago a young man crossing a desert came upon a spring of cool, crystal-clear water. The water was so delightful he thought how much his grandfather Saul would love it, so he filled his leather water bag. After a two-day journey he presented the water to Saul who immediately drank from the canteen and with a look of pride …
Best Thoughts Ever on Christmas: Keeping Christmas — A Prescription For A Better World
Whether you are a Christian or not, Henry Van Dyke‘s concept of “Keeping Christmas,” written in 1905, is worth reading and following: It is a good thing to observe Christmas Day. The mere making of times and seasons when men agree to stop work and make merry together is a wise and wholesome custom. It helps one to feel the …
Best Thoughts Ever on Christmas: Giving the Heart of Christmas
In her book “Gifts of the Heart”, Betty Youngs tells of a man who read an appeal in his church bulletin to gather food, gifts and toys to help a church family have a better Christmas. The man, I’ll call him Jim, whose own family was struggling, pointed to the bulletin and told his wife, “We must help.” So, the …
Best Thought Ever on What I Wish I Knew Earlier: Maya Angelou Was Right, How You Make Someone Feel May Be More Important Than What You Say
As a precocious smart ass in high school and in later stages of my life as a law professor, parent and boss, I thought it was my right and responsibility to make my friends wiser, my students smarter, and my children better by telling them better ways to think, clearing up their confusions and deepening their understanding and knowledge. I …