A quote a day keeps the woes away
You carry within you the wonders you seek around you” is a precept written by Sir Thomas Browne, a gifted author, student of the natural world, scientist, scholar, and outspoken supporter of tolerance at a time when intolerance was the norm.
Precepts are commands or principles intended as general rules of action. Simply put, they are words to ponder and live by. They are all about being unique and different. And if you read them, you might find something inside you that you may not have realized before.
365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Browne’s Book of Precepts is a collection of such words of inspiration used by Browne to motivate his students in their essay-writing in his classroom, and to make them understand the big picture of their lives. RJ Palacio, the bestselling author of Wonder, a book on kindness and empathy, compiled them.
Wonder narrates the stirring, uplifting and endearing story of August Pullman, a Manhattan boy afflicted with serious facial deformities at birth, and his interaction with friends and family. The narrative of Wonder terminates as August, or Auggie, finishes fifth grade at a prep school — his first year after being home-schooled while undergoing a series of surgeries during the first 10 years of his life. Palacio’s characters were difficult to say goodbye to, so a second book is more than welcome.
365 Days of Wonder allots a whole page to one precept per day, and at the end of each month, Browne includes an essay that shares his thoughts on certain precepts and how they came about. The book also includes some of the thousands of precepts that were sent by children or gathered from communications he has had with some of his students. The precepts focus on “kindness, strength of character, overcoming adversity, or simply doing good in the world.” My top 20 from a list of 365 are:
1. You were born an original. Don’t become a copy. — Dustin
2. The smile is the shortest distance between two persons. —Victor Borge
3. Those who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed. —Lloyd Jones
4. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. — Margaret Mead
5. Hope is like the sun. When it’s behind the clouds, it’s not gone. You just have to find it! —Matthew
6. When life gives you lemons, make orange juice. Be unique! —JJ
7. The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it. —Michelangelo
8. Be the person who can smile on the worst day. —Cate
9. Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take our breath away. —Unknown 10. The best things in life are not things. —Ginny Moore
11. The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together. —Carl Sagan
12. Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves. —JM Barrie.
13. Good friends are like stars. You don’t always see them, but you know they’re always there. —Unknown
14. Don’t cry because it’s over; smile because it happened. —Dr. Seuss
15. My religion is simple. My religion is kindness. —Dalai Lama
16. To love another person is to see the face of God. —Les Miserables
17. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. —Martin Luther King Jr. 18. Wherever there is a human being there is an opportunity for a kindness. —Seneca
19. Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless in facing them. —Rabindranath Tagore
20. I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again. —Stephen Grellet
This writer is a big fan of Wonder, and loves the precepts taught by Browne in
365 Days of Wonder, and the ensuing discussions about them. Get enlightened, engaged, inspired comforted and challenged every day of the year.