William James may be more known for the company he kept than his writings. Godson to Ralph Waldo Emerson and a friend to the likes of Helen Keller, Mark Twain, G. K. Chesterton and Sigmund Freud, James wrote books on the young science of psychology.

The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.

Inside, I always knew this to be true. Someone once told me, all the answers are already inside. I just shut the door in my mind to hear only what I want to hear. Its time I open the door.

Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity in India. She is most known for her work among the poverty-stricken of Kolkata (Calcutta) and is referred to as the Angel of Mercy. Her work has changed the life of millions and the way she lived continues to be a source of inspiration for even more around the world. She is remembered and she is loved, because she gave love.

Few of us can do great things, but all of us can do small things with great love.

It truly is amazing what a person can do when they allow love and gratefulness to fill their heart. Let us be reminded of that this day.

An English writer, Aldous Leonard Huxley is said to be a 'leader of modern thought' in distinguished circles. Others thought his perspective was ill-conceived and baseless, encroaching too harsh a critic.

There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.

I say to thee, all of us think we know what is best. Best for me, best for you, best for everyone. Father teaches that there is only One who knows. All else is merely a guess. All else is perception between fact and truth. Lost life will forever exist if under another's list. No one can live in self-freedom under markings of expectations. True life and love comes from chosen-disciplined living, unjudged acceptance and unconditioanal gratefulness.

Born and lived in the 1800's, Henry George was an early American economist. He was also looked upon with political influence as a philospher forming policies that helped shape the American economic infrastructure.

He who sees the truth, let him proclaim it, without asking who is for it or who is against it.

Living in a politically-correct world, we need to remain bold and stalwart to follow and live our convictions. Sometimes its not that easy though, right? I remind myself, dig a little deeper, and a little more, and a little more until all doubt has left.

CS Lewis helped changed the world's landscape, but he first started by changing himself. His faith, his strength, his courage is an inspiration.

Though our feelings come and go, God’s love for us does not.

There's something surreal about that phrase - How we can be loved unconditionally. Its unfathomable by the human mind, which is why you have to let mind go. Feel it with your heart. Feel it with your soul.

CS Lewis was an atheist in his youth. He described himself as being "very angry with God for not existing." He was later influenced by arguments with his Oxford colleague and Catholic friend J. R. R. Tolkien, and by G.K. Chesterton's book, The Everlasting Man. He slowly rediscovered Christianity. He came to believe in the existence of God although he fought greatly against it. He describes his last struggle in Surprised by Joy:

You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.

It sounds incredibly similar both in feeling and action. God wanted me to hit bottom. Not for him, but so I would see Him. I had been blind and deaf, stupid and ignorant.

My best friend told me of her similar experience and I relate her advice, and my 'awakening' with these words, 'I was trying to find myself by looking to the core of my humanity. I was looking in the wrong place. There is fault in being human. It is the Divinity within me that I must listen to, trust completely."

Born in Northern Ireland, CS Lewis was awarded many honorary doctorates for his accomplishments, but he found self- passion in Renaissance literature and Poetry.

What you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing; it also depends on what kind of a person you are.

Move. Change where you are standing. You are missing the world if you stay in the same spot. What's the saying about grass growing under your feet? You need to find yourself to know you need to move.

Clive Staples Lewis, or more commonly known to his friends as 'Jack', is most recognized for his literary work, The Chronicles of Narnia.

God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

Maybe its because we turn to Him the most during those times. We should always be listening...

This week we turn to the great author and story-teller CS Lewis...

The pain I feel now is the happiness I had before. That's the deal.

I wonder why the pain feels so much greater? Is it because we don't really appreciate the happy times? We coast through them without even thinking. We should all be a bit more grateful.

There was no third-party quote that could embody the words being felt, so this is a new creation.

No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time to look inside yourself, view how you are living life, see your faults, surrender your ego and yourself to what is just.

I have found myself living in ignorance far too long and its penalty far greater than ever imagined.

Nobel Prize Peace Awardee, the Most Reverend Desmond Mpilo Tutu said these words,

Without forgiveness, there's no future.

American actress and sex symbol Mae West was the Diva of Vaudeville and a shining star in the hype of Hollywood birth.

Love thy neighbor - and if he happens to be tall, debonair and devastating, it will be that much easier.

Ladies, this one's for you.

Born in 1854, the Irishman, Poet, Novelist, Dramatist and an opinionated Critic,
Oscar Wilde sharply stated,

I like men who have a future and women who have a past.

I don't know exactly what that means,
but I like it.

Sixth American President and eldest son of the second US President, John Quincy Adams stated,

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.

Why do we find it so difficult to have patience?

Known as one of America's Best Story-Tellers, a camp-fire dweller and a beloved troubador, Louis L'Amour was a writer of western fiction with over 100 novels and 30 motion pictures penned to his name.

"Nobody got anywhere in the world by simply being content."

When we settle for being content, we let mediocrity prevail.

A student of Socrates, this person is known as one of the most influential philosophers of ancient Greece and a teacher to Aristotle. The Philosopher Plato remarked,

Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.

Why don't we more carefull choose our words?

The famous inventor Thomas Alva Edison stated,

There are no rules here--we're trying to accomplish something.

Comments welcome...

America's Presidential First Lady
Nancy Reagan feminantly stated,

A woman is like a tea bag,
you can not tell how strong she is
until you put her in hot water.

Agreeably, the same can be said for men.

The legendary showman and creator of the 'Greatest Show on Earth,' PT Barnum started his 'circus' career in 1834 just after an attempt in newspaper publishing. His circus was eventually sold to Ringling Brothers in 1907 for a price of US$400,000.

If I shoot at the sun I may hit a star.

Let us all aim high.

Writer of science fiction and short stories, William Rotsler gives us these words,

You won't find a solution by saying there is no problem.

So let us be mindful of problems and find solutions.