The Quotes

A couple of things I’ve read recently have jumped out at me. I can’t remember which books they are from, but please know they’re not my quotes.

First, “Human capacity for inhumanity is boundless.”

Wow, let’s ponder that for a minute. In other words, there are no limits to the evil some people can enact upon others. I don’t want to be someone who treats others with disdain and looks at them as scum.

There are indeed people who are hard to deal with, and they don’t seem to improve over time. It feels as though they get worse. But still, the Golden Rule applies to how we treat them.

I’ve often realized that roughness or toughness is an exterior, a façade that is removable with the right word, or simply a smile.

I understand there are evil people in the world, and they will never change and will constantly be enacting evil deeds upon their fellow man, but I will always choose not to contribute to that behavior.

Second, “The way to a man’s heart is through his starving mind.”

Let’s take a few minutes for this one. I’ve always heard the quote, “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”

This other quote is similar. It depicts a hunger that must be relieved, but it is in the mind, not the stomach.

And if you find an empty mind, you can fill it with whatever you want because there’s enough room to store information. And there are no barriers or shields already in place to combat stupidity that tries to enter.

If idle hands are the devil’s workshop, then an idle mind is his nuclear laboratory.

An empty mind is a vacuum. It sucks up the nearest thing even if it isn’t beneficial, just like a starving person will eat almost anything to satisfy their hunger.

I heard a story of a great-uncle who lived through a Japanese POW camp during World War 2. The rumor is that there wasn’t a rat or bug within three miles of the camp.

Empty stomachs searched for whatever was nearby that would reduce the hunger pains.

Humans were created to know. We were made to search for knowledge.

But I believe I need to be careful what I am putting in one of my most precious commodities: my mind.

to those who seek wisdom,
– Caleb