Smiles, Wisdom and Encouragement: Quotations with Personal Commentary to Lift Your Life

By Murray C. Watson

This is a collection of inspiration, smiles and spiritual wisdom drawn from a wide array of sources from ancient to modern times, complemented by unique personal commentary.

“I’d like a copy of this book.… Anything to help the Universe.”— Alvin Pettle, M.D. FRCS (C), Author of Rx/My Prescription for Life, The Ruth Pettle Wellness Centre

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jan 14, 2010
• ISBN: 9781483513560

Book preview

AVAILABLE FROM MURRAY C. WATSON

Books

DAILY WISDOM AND SERENITY

Quotations for Mind and Soul

SMILES, WISDOM AND ENCOURAGEMENT

Quotations with Personal Commentary to Lift Your Life

IF ONLY SLEEP WOULD LAST FOREVER

Help for Depression and Anxiety from One Who’s Been There

CDs of 14 SPEECHES

Finding Serenity Avenue (Take Kindness)

A Brother Like That

Don’t Horse Around with Aeroplanes and Hospitals

The Wheelbarrow

In the Land of Nod

Down with Depression

The Private and the President

Every Pleasant Road (Goodness Is As Goodness Does)

Adam Had a Garden

Growing Up

Just Who Do You Think You Are, Anyway?

Slow Down

A Day in the Life of Rev. Michael McKnight

Runaway Horses

(For Event Planners a ‘Speech Sampler CD’ is available.)

Other speeches (besides those above): A New You for a New Year; Putting the Brakes on Speech Anxiety; Co-dependency 101 (People-pleasing)

Laminated Table Mats

A tasteful and attractive set of 6 inspirational mats, illustrated with colour nature scenes by the (late) photographer Bill Beekers of Hawkesbury (formerly of Dunnville), Ontario

Laminated Posters

A set of 8 humorous posters (8 ½ x 14) illustrated with black line drawings by professional artist Dorothy Wintle of Toronto, Ontario

Murray’s Other Books

(Besides his two professionally-published books, these have been put together in his own printing shop, using black plastic comb bindings.)

A Chair by the Fire:

Stories to Warm the Heart and Soothe the Soul

Comfort and Joy:

Words and Pictures That Heal

Favourite Poems

In the Land of Nod:

Are Dreams for Real?

My Favourite Christmas Stories

Thank You, Thomas!

A Tribute to Three Common Saints

The Little Money Book:

For People Who Think They Have Too Little Money

Want to Renovate Your Life?

Recollections, Reflections, Meditations

Words from the Bible When You Feel Discouraged

Words from the Bible When You Feel Lost or Alone

Murray’s Next Books to be published professionally

Steel Buggy Wheels on a Hard Dirt Road

Love Your Neighbour as Yourself — Not as Someone Else

Our JUDGE Who Art in Heaven… : A Book on Hell

Please e-mail [e-mail] for more information.

He is an ACS (Advanced Communicator Silver) Toastmaster.

Murray Watson is a speaker with Triangle Seminars (triangleseminars.com).

Contact Information:

[e-mail]

www.speakingtoinspire.com

705-778-1203

Smiles,

Wisdom and

Encouragement

Quotations with

Personal Commentary

to Lift Your Life

Murray C. Watson

Copyright © 2010, 2013 (ebook edition) by Murray C. Watson

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

All known sources have been attributed. Errors or omissions found will be credited in next edition.

ebook edition

Issued also in print format.

ebook preparation: Kim Monteforte

e-mail: [e-mail]

www.speakingtoinspire.com

To purchase books, CDs, inspirational place mats, or to book a speech, please see contact information at back of book.

Dedicated to Mel Watson, my brother

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Murray C. Watson was born third in a farm family of seven near Havelock, Ontario. He is a retired teacher, published author, and an award-winning inspirational speaker. He uses his skills to share smiles, wisdom, and encouragement.

Spending the first weeks of his life in SickKids Hospital with digestive problems, along with shyness, sleep apnea, and short-term memory loss (following drug treatment for depression in 1993 in a Toronto hospital), failed to cure him of his childhood dream — and greatest nightmare — to speak in public.

Signature Speeches:

Pills, Skills, or the Will? (on depression) and Finding Serenity Avenue.

Favourite Feedback:

I loved your speech. It was really eye-opening and helpful. I have heard many speeches related to depression, but this one was different. I felt connected. I am being very honest.

– Saba, grade 9 student,

Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute

AUDIENCES AND READERS RESPOND

Advance Praise for Daily Wisdom and Serenity:

"I read it in one sitting — loved the quotes. I would like to pass it along to my Aunt Floss. She is 96 and a member of a really active church in Brantford. I am going to suggest they have you come and speak."

– JUDY SUKE (Triangle Seminars), Motivational Humorist, Manuscript Developer and Author, College Professor

"I’d like a copy of this book [Smiles, Wisdom and Encouragement].… Anything to help the Universe, and this will help."

– DR. ALVIN PETTLE, MD, The Ruth Pettle Wellness Centre, Author of Rx / My Prescription for Life

Thanks again for your excellent speech and most useful [Seven Steps to Serenity]. I am using them myself and spreading them to others.

– PAM MOUNTAIN, Head of Toronto Public Library (Annette St. Branch)

"Murray, I want to compliment you.… I’ve been battling a medical problem, and have to go into hospital tomorrow, and I haven’t been able to put your book [Want to Renovate Your Life?] down."

– LES GROVES (1916-2007), ‘MR STANLEY,’ Hardware Industry Hall of Fame member

Your delivery had such an emotional appeal [and] when it comes to humour, you’ve got it!

– LILI DEJONG, St. Catharines Toastmasters Club

Anyone who can raise laughter and tears in the same speech has the gift.

– JOANNE, Naturally Speaking Toastmasters, Peterborough

When I read your books, I feel like I’m in church listening to a comforting sermon.

– RETA FLEMING, former teaching colleague, wife of a United Church minister

"They are never alone that are

accompanied with noble thoughts."

—SIR PHILIP SIDNEY

INTRODUCTION BY MURRAY C. WATSON

In the summer time when my six siblings and I were kids, we used to pick wild berries on our farm near Havelock in Peterborough County—strawberries, raspberries, blackberries. To pick blueberries, we travelled north to Twin Lakes, by horse-and-buggy before we had a car, and our mother always found the patches with the plumpest ripe berries.

After leaving home, I’ve been helped over many difficulties through picking words of wisdom left by others. Whether I was teaching, farming, writing, or giving speeches, a life-long activity has been collecting quotations. When I was 21, and in my first year of teaching in the senior room of a two-room elementary school in Marlbank, Ontario, I recall keeping a special notebook. In my free time I’d record snippets of writing that caught my interest. Although I don’t recall what happened to that notebook, I do recall one poem in it—‘The House by the Side of the Road’ by Sam Walter Foss. Here’s one verse:

Let me live in my house by the side of the road.

It’s here the race of men go by.

They are good, they are bad, they are weak, they are strong,

Wise, foolish—so am I;

Then why should I sit in the scorner’s seat,

Or hurl the cynic’s ban?

Let me live in a house by the side of the road

And be a friend to man.

Some pieces found their way into a set of place mats I made when I was about thirty, and later into several home-made books. The original reason for the mats and the books was to encourage myself after some experiences, caused by my own wrongdoing, that left me in urgent need of repair and repose.

Of course, if I’d always acted on the words in this poem, I could’ve avoided many of the low periods in my life. But I only discovered later that life has a bounce-back. What I do for others—or don’t do—I do for myself. What I do for myself alone, I do for nobody.

I don’t feel serene by deciding to feel serene. Serenity is a consequence, bounce-back, from kind deeds to others.

For it’s been known from ancient times that feelings follow actions. In the Torah, Job was badly depressed. We’re familiar with the patience of Job, but do we recall what cured his illness? ‘God turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends.’ In other words, his depression lifted when he got his eyes off himself and onto the needs of others.

One difficult occasion I recall was a parent-teacher interview. The mother of one of my students was going to take her complaint to the principal and the school-board. Feeling depressed on the way home that night, I recalled reading that the brain can be tricked into believing your facial expressions are real. I felt doubtful but thought ‘What better time to try it? I can’t feel any worse.’ I smiled and was surprised when, in fact, pleasant memories came instantly to mind.

The fastest things in the world, and perhaps the most valuable in helping us when we are downcast, are thoughts. I think it was Leo Tolstoy who said, We regret losing a purse full of money, but a good thought which has come to us, which we’ve heard or read, a thought which we should have remembered and applied to our life, which could have improved the world—we lose this thought and promptly forget about it, and we do not regret it, though it is more precious than millions.

(Of course, some things take time. In his book of quotations, Rx//My Prescription for Life, Dr. Alvin Pettle says, Becoming a doctor takes education; becoming a healer takes time. He speaks from experience, having practiced orthodox medicine and now alternative healthcare at the Ruth Pettle Wellness Centre, for women, on Bathurst Street in Toronto. I’ve written other books of quotations but it was from his book that I got the idea to share some personal comments in this one.)

Thinking others might be trudging along a rough road from time to time, as well, I began to sprinkle quotes in my books and speeches. Later a question began forming in my mind—‘Why not pick the best of all the quotes I’ve gathered and put them into a single collection?’ the way my mother picked and shared the choicest blueberries. This little book is my answer to that question. Of course, like books, different passages would appeal to different individuals. In one of his novels, George MacDonald has Malcolm say, Folk must make acquaintance among books as they would among living folk. These are ones that helped me. Admittedly, there will be many I will have forgotten to include.

Ingesting plump ripe blueberries gives you a burst of flavour and sustenance for a moment. Ingesting and digesting wise words can—something like a time-release tablet—give you sustenance throughout your life. Rudyard Kipling said, Words are the most powerful drug used by mankind. Of course, the most important ingredient in this recipe is applying the words.

And I know of no better way to say ‘thank you’ to all the authors I’ve quoted—from Aristotle and Anonymous (who may be my favourite) to Zoroaster and Zig Ziglar—for the help they’ve given me, than to pass it along to you. I sincerely hope these words, with their smiles, encouragement and wisdom, will lift your life the way they’ve lifted mine.

—MW

Who can love anything that God made too much? What a world this would be, were everything loved as it ought to be!

—THOMAS TRAHERNE

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to change the world.

—ANNE FRANK

To maintain order, excellence and harmony in the territory under one’s own hat will keep one fairly well employed.

—ELBERT HUBBARD

All the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.

—JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

I do not need a friend who changes when I change and nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.

—PLUTARCH

Whenever you have seen God pass, mark it and go and sit in that window again.

—HENRY WARD BEECHER

Think that day lost whose low descending sun

Views from thy hand no noble action done.

—JACOB BOBART

The best exercise for the heart is bending down and helping someone else up.

—JOHN ANDREW HOLMES, JR.

If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.

—DEMOCRITUS

He does not believe who does not live according to his belief.

—THOMAS FULLER

The greatest joy in life is doing something for somebody else. Become a public food. Offer yourself to others…. Don’t think that you get joy by doing this. The joy is in you always…. Your actions allow you to retain the Supreme Joy.

—SWAMI SATCHIDANANDA

[Retain or recapture. —MW]

Paradox

Whatever be thy longing or thy need, —

That do thou give;

So shall thy soul be fed, and thou indeed

Shalt truly live.

—ANONYMOUS

Do the duty which lies nearest to thee which you know to be a duty. Your second duty will already have become clear.

—THOMAS CARLYLE

The wise man always does at once what the fool does finally.

—BALTASAR