Our Creator has put in us hungers that this earth can- not satisfy. We cannot be completely self-contained on earth. Physical sense cannot give us a full life, nor can knowledge alone. No life is full unless it is linked to some- thing that goes on after we are dead.... If we have nothing more to live for than just to get ahead in a competitive system, then democracy will go down before other philosophies.

Ralph Washington Sockman

Categorized in : Knowledge Life Philosophy

A true lover always feels in debt to the one he loves

Ralph Washington Sockman

valentines-day anniversary love

Faced with the immensity of the universe, Job realized that there are limits to man's rationalizing, that we cannot find where the cloud of sorrow starts, that all our boasted knowledge is but an island in the vast ocean of mystery, and as the island of knowledge grows larger, the shore line of mystery becomes longer. At the end of his wits, he surrendered in trust to a Higher Wisdom.

Ralph Washington Sockman

ocean jobs men

The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.

Ralph Washington Sockman

bullying courage life

Give the best you have to the highest you know... and do it now.

Ralph Washington Sockman

knows work giving

When the dictators and the opportunists are gone, the cross will still stand before us and something in us will say, That is the real thing.

Ralph Washington Sockman

real truth gone

Gentleness is a divine trait: nothing is so divine as gentleness, and nothing is so gentle as real strength.

Ralph Washington Sockman

strength real humanity

True humility is intelligent self-respect which keeps us from thinking too highly or too meanly of ourselves. It makes us mindful of the nobility God meant us to have. Yet it makes us modest by reminding us how far we have come short of what we can be.

Ralph Washington Sockman

intelligent humility thinking

Whatever the right hand findeth to do, the left hand carries a watch on its wrist to show how long it takes to do it.

Ralph Washington Sockman

left-hand long hands

The test of our religion is whether it fits us to meet emergencies. A man has no more character than he can command in a time of crisis.

Ralph Washington Sockman

time character men

Nothing is so strong as gentleness.

Ralph Washington Sockman

gentleness self-love strong

Our love for God is tested by the question of whether we seek Him or His gifts.

Ralph Washington Sockman

stewardship our-love financial

Our growth depends not on how many experiences we devour, but on how many we digest.

Ralph Washington Sockman

business-growth depends growth

There are parts of a ship which taken by themselves would sink. The engine would sink. The propeller would sink. But when the parts of a ship are built together, they float. So with the events of my life. Some have been tragic. Some have been happy. But when they are built together, they form a craft that floats and is going places. And I am comforted.

Ralph Washington Sockman

events taken together

In all living there is a certain narrowness of application which leads to breadth and power. We have to concent on a thing in order to master it. Then we must be broad enough not to be narrowed by our specialties.

Ralph Washington Sockman

enough order knowledge

What makes greatness is starting something that lives after you.

Ralph Washington Sockman

starting greatness accomplishment

We cannot hoard life as we can money. When a person tries to be a miser of his health, he usually makes himself miserable. Mental talents, if buried and not used, tend to deteriorate. Whoever would save his memory by not using it will lose it.

Ralph Washington Sockman

talent trying memories

When we count on chance in lieu of law and labor, we weaken our healthy attitudes toward work, our fellow men and our God.

Ralph Washington Sockman

law attitude men

A service of worship is primarily a service to God. When we realize this and act upon it, we make it a service to men.

Ralph Washington Sockman

realizing worship men

The hinge of history is on the door of a Bethlehem stable.

Ralph Washington Sockman

bethlehem christmas doors

Love is the outreach of self toward completion.

Ralph Washington Sockman

outreach self love-is