Quotes of the Week

Envy digs the mud that jealousy throws at success. - Norris Belcher 

 There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say, Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round-- as a good time: a kind forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good; and I say, God bless it! - Fred, nephew of Ebenezer Scrooge, A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens 

 At this time of the rolling year I suffer most. Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode! Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me! - Jacob Marley, A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens 

 I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me that I may sponge away the writing on this stone! ...I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future! The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. Oh Jacob Marley! Heaven, and the Christmas Time be praised for this! I say it on my knees, old Jacob, on my knees! - Ebenezer Scrooge, A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens 

 Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, as good a man, as the old city knew, or nay other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. ...He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as tiny Tim, observed, God Bless Us, Every One! - A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens