Kevin Stilley

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May 15, 2011 by kevinstilley

Albert Einstein – select quotes

I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves — such an ethical basis I call more proper for a herd of swine.
~ in The World As I See It

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
~ in The World As I See It

Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.

Anyone who doesn’t take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.

God does not play dice.

I never think of the future – it comes soon enough.

If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith.

If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.

Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.

In the middle of every difficulty comes opportunity.

Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.

More and more I come to value charity and love of one’s fellow being above everything else . . . All our lauded technological progress—our very civilizations—is like the axe in the hand of the pathological criminal.

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.

Only those who attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible.

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.

Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.

There are two ways to look at life. One is that nothing is a miracle, and the other is that everything is a miracle.

Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.

We cannot solve the problems we have created with the same thinking that created them.

When the solution is simple, God is answering.

When you examine the lives of the most influential people who have ever walked among us, you discover one thread that winds through them all. They have been aligned first with their spiritual nature and only then with their physical selves.

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Book Cover

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Filed Under: Blog, Quotes Tagged With: albert einstein, biography, Blog, perspective, physics, Quotes, relativity, Science, time

November 23, 2009 by kevinstilley

Book Review: Bill Wallace of China

Book Cover

Bill Wallace of China, by Jesse C. Fletcher

In a chapel sermon at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Paige Patterson recommended reading “Bill Wallace of China.” Most people know of William Wallace of Scotland through Mel Gibson’s movie “Braveheart,” but relatively few have heard of William Wallace of China. What a shame. . . .

I have had this book in my personal library for several decades but it never seemed to make its way to the top of the “next to be read” stack of books that I keep by my bedside. Like most book lovers I have a problem . . . a big problem . . . well, an obsession – – – I buy more books than I can read. If I started reading right now and read twelve hours a day for the rest of my life I would not be able to read even half of the books in my personal library. So, it is not uncommon for me to own but neglect a book. I regret that I neglected this book as long as I did.

When Dr. Patterson recommended this book I had just finished reading another book  (Homer Hickam’s book The Coalwood Way — which, by the way is a great read) and was considering what to read next, so to paraphrase Augustine, “I heard the voice on the other side of the wall calling out ‘Pick up the book and read.'”

As a young man in Tennessee Bill Wallace felt called of God to prepare for service as a medical missionary. After completing his preparations he was appointed by the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board) to serve in Southern China. Nothing so amazing there, . . . so why the book? Wallace served in China during the Boxer Rebellion, the Japanese invasion during World War II, and in the subsequent revolutionary war when the Communists wrested control from the Nationalists.

The book is full of drama, intrigue, and suspense. Without those elements the book would not succeed. But, what makes the book compelling is that the reader experiences Wallace in a similar fashion as did the Chinese people. The reader, like the Chinese, is introduced to the quiet unassuming Wallace, gradually comes to like Wallace, then respect him, love him and finally finds that Wallace’s life story compels both introspection and committed personal action.

I add my voice to Patterson’s in recommending this book. The book is a quick read, but the reader will take much away from it in terms of clearly defined informational content as well as a tacit knowledge that drives volitional intent.

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Filed Under: Blog, Books, Front Page Tagged With: biography, Boxer rebellion, China, Japan, missiology, Missions, William Wallace, WWII

December 1, 2008 by kevinstilley

Biographies – Select Quotes

Autobiography is an unrivalled vehicle for telling the truth about other people.
~ Philip Guedalla

Biographies are bu the clothes and buttons of the man–the biography of the man himself cannot be written.
~ Mark Twain

Every great man nowadays has his disciples, and it is always Judas who writes the biography.
~ Oscar Wilde

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Autobiography, biography, Blog, Books, Graffiti, literature, Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, quips, Quotes, wisdom

November 30, 2008 by kevinstilley

Biography & Autobiography – Select Quotes

Autobiography is an unrivaled vehicle for telling the truth about other people.
~ Philip Guedalla

Biographies are bu the clothes and buttons of the man–the biography of the man himself cannot be written.
~ Mark Twain

Every great man nowadays has his disciples, and it is always Judas who writes the biography.
~ Oscar Wilde

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Autobiography, biographical, biography, Blog, Quotes

August 16, 2008 by kevinstilley

Free Confessions

Augustine’s Confessions is one of my favorite books.  Christian Audio is now offering free audio downloads of the book through the end of August.  I have downloaded and listened to the Mp3 files and they are well done.

Click here to get your free Confessions.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: audio download, Augustine, Autobiography, biography, Blog, Books, Church Fathers, Confessions, Medieval Period, Mp3

August 9, 2008 by kevinstilley

The Personal Experiences of Christians — Books Recommended by James Sire

In his book Why Should Anyone Believe Anything At All, James Sire recommends the following books on The Personal Experiences of Christians:

Philosophers Who Believe, edited by Kelly James Clark

Born Again, by Charles Colson

Talking About God Is Dangerous, by Tatiana Goricheva

The Hiding Place, by Corrie Ten Boom

A Severe Mercy, by Sheldon Vanauken

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: biography

May 24, 2008 by kevinstilley

Harvest Poems, by Carl Sandburg

Like most people, I enjoy particular poems. But, try as I may, I have never been able to cultivate a love for the genre of poetry. And, I have seriously tried.

I make it a point to read a book of poetry at least once each year. I know that I probably didn’t like cabbage the first time that I ate it, but I love it now. So, I am hoping that through continued exposure I will develop the same kind of taste for poetry.

Thus, it was that I came to Carl Sandburg’s book Harvest Poems: 1910-1960. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Autobiography, biography, Blog, Books, Lincoln, poetry, prose, Pulitzer, Sandburg

May 9, 2008 by kevinstilley

Biographical Onion Humor

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: biography, Humor

December 12, 2007 by kevinstilley

Thomas Sowell’s Christmas Book Recommendations

Thomas Sowell recently suggested the following books would make excellent Christmas gifts. In his own words:

— “The Immigration Solution” is an excellent new book that discusses illegal immigration without the political rhetoric, spin, demagoguery, and unsubstantiated claims that have become all too common in the media and among politicians.

— “Mugged by Reality” by John Agresto is an eyewitness account of life inside Iraq by someone who does not take either the Bush administration line or the Congressional Democrats’ line. Nor does he hesitate to admit that what he saw in Iraq changed the opinions with which he first entered the country.

— “The Prince of Darkness” by Robert Novak is a big book detailing half a century of his experiences in Washington, dealing with both political figures and other members of the print and broadcast media. He names names.

— For those who like history, there is a new history of one of the most decisive decades in American history — the decade of the Great Depression of the 1930s — titled “The Forgotten Man” by Amity Shlaes.

— For those who want more in-depth analysis of the economic consequences of New Deal policies, Jim Powell’s book “FDR’s Folly” would make an excellent supplement to Amity Shlaes’ book.

— “Until Proven Innocent” by Stuart Taylor and K.C. Johnson is an account of the Duke University “rape” case that goes far beyond the misdeeds of the disgraced District Attorney Michael Nifong.

— An excellent present for those parents and students who want to find academic institutions that have not succumbed to the ideological corruption found at Duke and other colleges and universities would be the book “Choosing the Right College.“

— A very moving account of the life of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas can be found in his very readable and insightful memoir, “My Grandfather’s Son,” which has been on the best-seller list for eight weeks thus far.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Autobiography, biography, Book Recommendations, Political Books, Thomas Sowell

November 8, 2007 by kevinstilley

Harper Lee’s "To Kill A Mockingbird" and the Memoirs of Clarence Thomas

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Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Autobiography, biography, fiction, Harper Lee, memoir

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