David Roseberry > David's Quotes

“No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying. We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, we fail everywhere.”
― Leonard Ravenhill

“Secularity is a way of being dependent on the responses of our milieu. The secular or false self is the self which is fabricated, as Thomas Merton says, by social compulsions. “Compulsive” is indeed the best adjective for the false self. It points to the need for ongoing and increasing affirmation. Who am I? I am the one who is liked, praised, admired, disliked, hated or despised. Whether I am a pianist, a businessman or a minister, what matters is how I am perceived by my world. If being busy is a good thing, then I must be busy. If having money is a sign of real freedom, then I must claim my money. If knowing many people proves my importance, I will have to make the necessary contacts. The compulsion manifests itself in the lurking fear of failing and the steady urge to prevent this by gathering more of the same—more work, more money, more friends.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Way of the Heart: The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers

“The concern of the scholar is primarily with what the text meant; the concern of the layperson is usually with what it means. The believing scholar insists that we must have both. Reading the Bible with an eye only to its meaning for us can lead to a great deal of nonsense as well as to every imaginable kind of error—because it lacks controls. Fortunately, most believers are blessed with at least a measure of that most important of all hermeneutical skills—common sense.”
― Gordon D. Fee, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth

“But the root of all sin is self-sufficiency—independence from the rule of God. When we fail to wait prayerfully for God’s guidance and strength, we are saying with our actions, if not with our words, that we do not need him. How much of our service is actually a “going it alone”?”
― Charles E. Hummel, Tyranny of the Urgent

“People who are better at delaying gratification have higher SAT scores, lower levels of substance abuse, lower likelihood of obesity, better responses to stress, and superior social skills. We’ve all seen this play out in our own lives. If you delay watching television and get your homework done, you’ll generally learn more and get better grades. If you don’t buy desserts and chips at the store, you’ll often eat healthier food when you get home. At some point, success in nearly every field requires you to ignore an immediate reward in favor of a delayed reward.”
― James Clear, Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

“There is this story where NASA tried to figure out how to make a ballpoint pen that works in space. If you have ever tried to use a ballpoint pen over your head, you have probably realised it is gravity that keeps the ink flowing. After a series of prototypes, several test runs and tons of money invested, NASA developed a fully functional gravity-independent pen, which pushes the ink onto the paper by means of compressed nitrogen. According to this story, the Russians faced the same problem. So they used pencils (De Bono, 1998, 141). The story itself, unfortunately, is an urban myth, but the lesson of it encapsulates the core idea of the slip-box: Focus on the essentials and don’t complicate things unnecessarily.”
― Sönke Ahrens, How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking

“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”
― Soren Kierkegaard

“In The War Against Boys, feminist philosopher Christina Hoff Sommers writes, “History teaches us that masculinity without morality is lethal. But masculinity constrained by morality is powerful and constructive, and a gift to women.”6”
― Nancy R. Pearcey, The Toxic War on Masculinity: How Christianity Reconciles the Sexes

“In fact, there is greater difference within the categories of men and women than there is between men and women as groups. For example, this graph shows difference in science ability:45”
― Nancy R. Pearcey, The Toxic War on Masculinity: How Christianity Reconciles the Sexes

“The way you like to learn is what makes you comfortable, but it isn’t necessarily how you learn best. Sometimes you even learn better in the mode that makes you the most uncomfortable, because you have to work harder at it. This is the first form of courage: being brave enough to embrace discomfort and throw your learning style out the window.”
― Adam M. Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

“There is now a human body sitting at the right hand of God the Father at the very center of heaven.”
― Sam Allberry, What God Has to Say about Our Bodies: How the Gospel Is Good News for Our Physical Selves

“We hear marketers say all the time: “Build a personal brand! Get people to fall in love with YOU! Then, people will buy anything and everything you create!” No, they won’t. For example, Billie Eilish is one of the biggest music stars in the world. She has millions and millions of fans and followers. And in 2019 she published a book (called Billie Eilish—”People love you!!!”) and it was a massive flop. Nobody bought it. What readers, listeners, viewers, and potential customers want isn’t you. It’s your category. The reason readers keep buying more Ryan Holiday books is because he keeps writing books about Stoicism, and his readers are obsessed with [category] Stoicism. Celebrities, on the other hand, typically write one book. And that book is titled their name. And it never sells. And then they don’t write any other books—because people don’t want more of “them.”
― Category Pirates, Snow Leopard: How Legendary Writers Create A Category Of One

“Remember: everything is the way it is because somebody changed the way it was.”
― Category Pirates, Snow Leopard: How Legendary Writers Create A Category Of One

“don’t strive to become an expert (ever!). Because being an expert is the enemy of fresh thinking. In martial arts there is a manta called “white belt for life”... because fighting is like life. You’ll either be humble in life, or humbled by it.”
― Category Pirates, Snow Leopard: How Legendary Writers Create A Category Of One

“Everything Is The Way It Is Because Someone Changed The Way It Was”
― Category Pirates, Snow Leopard: How Legendary Writers Create A Category Of One

“But let us never forget: there are zero cover bands in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.”
― Category Pirates, Snow Leopard: How Legendary Writers Create A Category Of One