November 2009
Week of
11-27-09:
Word:
Tragedy:
A lamentable, dreadful, or fatal event or affair; calamity; disaster.
Quote:
Every human being on this
earth is born with a tragedy, and it isn’t original sin.
He’s born with the tragedy that he has to grow up.
That he has to leave the nest, the security, and go out to do battle.
He has to lose everything that is lovely and fight for a new
loveliness of his own making, and it’s a tragedy.
A lot of people don’t have the courage to do it. (Helen Hayes)
Week of
11-20-09:
Word:
Serve:
To be useful or of service to; help.
Quote:
The only ones among you who
will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.
(Albert Schweitzer)
Week of
11-13-09:
Word:
Blame:
To place the responsibility for (a fault, error, etc.).
Quote:
The man who smiles when
things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on. (Robert Bloch)
Week of 11-6-09:
Word:
Pursuit:
An effort to secure or attain; quest.
Quote:
An object in possession
seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit. (Pliny the Younger)
October 2009
Week of
10-30-09:
Word:
Luminary:
A person who has attained eminence in his or her field or is an inspiration
to others.
Quote:
The people who are regarded
as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and
find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others. (Bertrand
Russell)
Week of
10-23-09:
Word:
Constant:
Continuing without pause or letup; unceasing.
Quote:
Constant dripping hollows
out a stone. (Lucretius)
Week of
10-16-09:
Word:
Command:
To have or exercise authority or control over; be master of; have at one’s
bidding or disposal.
Quote:
No one has a finer command
of language than the person who keeps his mouth shut. (Sam Rayburn)
Week of 10-9-09:
Word:
Weapon:
Any instrument or device for use in attack or defense in combat, fighting,
or war.
Quote:
I know not with what
weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with
sticks and stones. (Albert Einstein)
Week of 10-2-09:
Word:
Dignity:
Nobility or elevation of character; worthiness; bearing, conduct, or speech
indicative of self-respect or appreciation.
Quote:
Human dignity has gleamed
only now and then and here and there, in lonely splendor, throughout the
ages, a hope of the better men, never an achievement of the majority. (James
Thurber)
September 2009
Week of 9-25-09:
Word:
Cynic:
A person who believes that only selfishness motivates human actions and who
disbelieves in or minimizes selfless acts or disinterested points of view.
Quote:
What is a cynic?
A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
(Oscar Wilde)
Week of 9-18-09:
Word:
Disobedience:
Lack of obedience or refusal to comply; disregard or transgression.
Quote:
Disobedience, in the eyes
of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue.
It is through disobedience and rebellion that progress has been made.
(Oscar Wilde)
Week of 9-11-09:
Word:
Hate:
Intense dislike; extreme aversion or hostility.
Quote:
If you hate a person, you
hate something in him that is part of yourself.
What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us. (Hermann Hesse)
Week of 9-4-09:
Word:
Capable:
Having the ability or capacity for.
Quote:
If we did all the things we
are capable of, we would astound ourselves. (Thomas Edison)
August 2009
Week of 8-28-09:
Word:
Secret:
Designed or working to escape notice, knowledge, or observation.
Quote:
The secret of success is to know something nobody else knows. (Aristotle
Onassis)
Week of 8-21-09:
Word:
Formula:
A set form of words, as for stating or declaring something definitely or
authoritatively, for indicating procedure to be followed, or for prescribed
use on some ceremonial occasion.
Quote:
I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula
for failure—which is: Try to
please everybody. (Herbert Bayard Swope)
Week of 8-14-09:
Word:
Waste:
To consume, spend, or employ uselessly or without adequate return; use to no
avail or profit; squander.
Quote:
Time cannot be saved, but it can be wasted. (Unknown)
Week of 8-7-09:
Word:
|
Ought:
|
Quote:
Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be
whether they are the powers that ought to be. (Sydney J. Harris)
July 2009
Week of 7-31-09:
Word:
Disposition:
The predominant or prevailing tendency of one’s spirits; natural mental and
emotional outlook or mood; characteristic attitude.
Quote:
Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on the outward
circumstances. (Benjamin Franklin)
Week of 7-24-09:
Word:
Imagination:
The faculty of producing ideal creations consistent with reality.
Quote:
The power of imagination makes us infinite. (John Muir)
Week of 7-17-09:
Word:
Motivation:
To incite, move, prompt, propel.
Quote:
We are motivated by a keen desire for praise, and the better a man is, the
more he is inspired to glory. (Cicero)
Week of 7-10-09:
Word:
Wisdom:
Knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action;
sagacity, discernment, or insight.
Quote:
Along with success comes a reputation for wisdom. (Euripides)
June 2009
Week of 6-26-09:
Word:
Vanity:
Excessive pride in one’s appearance, qualities, abilities, achievements.
Quote:
All men dream but not equally.
Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the
day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous
men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible. (T.E.
Lawrence)
Week of 6-19-09:
Word:
Knowledge:
The fact or state of knowing; the perception of fact or truth; clear and
certain mental apprehension.
Quote:
So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains, And we never
even know we have the key. (Lyrics from
Already Gone, performed by the
Eagles for their 1974 On the Border
album)
Week of 6-12-09:
Word:
Character:
The aggregate of features and traits that form the individual nature of some
person or thing.
Quote:
You cannot dream yourself into a character:
you must hammer and forge yourself into one. (Henry D. Thoreau)
Week of 6-5-09:
Word:
Contentment:
Satisfaction; ease of mind.
Quote:
Fortify yourself with contentment, for this is an impregnable fortress.
(Epictetus)
May 2009
Week of 5-29-09:
Word:
Vice:
A fault, defect, or shortcoming.
Quote:
We are far more liable to catch the vices than the virtues of our
associates. (Denis Diderot)
Week of 5-22-09:
Word:
Remembrance:
A retained mental impression; memory.
Quote:
The more you say, the less people remember. (Francois Fenelon)
Week of 5-8-09:
Word:
Determinism:
The doctrine that all events, including human choices and decisions, have
sufficient causes.
Quote:
Life is like a game of cards.
The hand that is dealt you represents determinism; the way you play it is
free will. (Jawaharal Nehru)
Week of 5-1-09:
Word:
Confidence:
Belief in oneself and one’s own powers or abilities; self-confidence;
self-reliance; assurance.
Quote:
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.
Live the life you have imagined. (Henry David Thoreau)
April 2009
Week of 4-24-09:
Word:
Interpretation:
An explanation of the meaning of another’s work; an elucidation; a translation
Quote:
There are no facts, only interpretations. (Friedrich Nietzsche)
Week of 4-17-09:
Word:
Line:
A department of activity; occupation or business.
Quote:
I don’t know anything about music. In my line you don’t have to. (Elvis Presley)
Week of 4-10-09:
Word:
Self-respect:
Proper esteem or regard for the dignity of one’s character; due respect for oneself, one’s character, and one’s conduct.
Quote:
In my day, we didn’t have self-esteem, we have self-respect, and no more of it than we had earned. (Jane Haddam
Week of 4-3-09:
Word:
Vacuity:
An empty space; void; absence of thought or intelligence; inanity; blankness.
Quote:
Once you fully apprehend the vacuity of a life without struggle, you are equipped with the basic means of salvation. (Tennessee Williams)
March 2009
Week of 3-27-09:
Word:
Abhorrence:
A feeling of repugnance or loathing
Quote:
I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence. (Frederick Douglass)
Week of 3-20-09:
Word:
Vicious:
Spiteful; malicious; unpleasantly severe; savage.
Quote:
University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small. (Henry Kissinger)
Week of 3-13-09:
Word:
Stifle:
To suppress, curb, or withhold; to suffocate; to quell, crush, or end by force.
Quote:
Everywhere I go I’m asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don’t stifle enough of them. (Flannery O’Connor)
Week of 3-6-09:
Word:
Pray:
To make an earnest petition to; to make entreaty or supplication.
Quote:
Pray, v: To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled on behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy. (Ambrose Bierce)
Feburary 2009
Week of 2-27-09:
Word:
Plentiful:
Existing in abundance.
Quote:
Readers are plentiful; thinkers are rare. (Harriet Martineau)
Week of 2-20-09:
Word:
Esteem:
To regard highly or favorably; regard with respect or admiration.
Quote:
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly. (Thomas Paine)
Week of 2-13-09:
Word:
Possibilities:
Things that are possible, achievable.
Quote:
I am where I am because I believe in all possibilities.
(Whoopie Goldberg)
Week of 2-6-09:
Word:
Patriotism:
Devoted love, support, and defense of one's country; national loyalty.
Quote:
You’re not to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.
(Malcolm X)
January 2009
Week of 1-23-09:
Word:
Oppress:
To lie heavily upon; to weigh down, as sleep or weariness does.
Quote:
There’s a certain Slant of light, Winter Afternoons -- That oppresses, like the Heft of Cathedral Tunes --. (Emily Dickinson)
Week of 1-23-09:
Word:
Thought:
The product of mental activity; that which one thinks; the capacity or faculty of thinking, reasoning, imagining, etc.
Quote:
Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth – more than ruin – more even than death – Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man. (Bertrand Russell)
Week of 1-16-09:
Word:
Integrity:
Adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.
Quote:
Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not. (Oprah Winfrey)
Week of 1-9-09:
Word:
Common Sense:
Sound practical judgment that is independent of specialized knowledge, training, or the like; normal native intelligence.
Quote:
Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense. (Gertrude Stein)
Week of 1-2-09:
Word:
Fain:
Content; willing; obliged; eager.
Quote:
When a whole nation is roaring patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
December 2008
Week of 12-26-08:
Word:
Incompetent:
Lacking qualification or ability; incapable.
Quote:
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. (Isaac Asimov)
Week of 12-19-08:
Word:
Impotence:
Weakness; lack of self-control.
Quote:
It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence. (Mahatma Gandhi)
Week of 12-12-08:
Word:
Posthumous:
Arising, occurring, or continuing after one's death.
Quote:
There are only two ways of telling the complete truth – anonymously and posthumously. (Thomas Sowell)
Week of 12-5-08:
Word:
Madness:
Senseless folly; intense excitement or enthusiasm.
Quote:
You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it. (Robin Williams)
November 2008
Week of 11-28-08:
Word:
Illiterate:
Having or demonstrating very little or no education; unable to read and write; showing lack of culture, esp. in language and literature.
Quote:
If you can read and you don’t, then you’re illiterate by choice.
(Jeff Olson)
Week of 11-21-08:
Word:
Ignorant:
Uninformed; unaware; lacking knowledge or information as to a particular subject or fact; lacking in knowledge or training; unlearned.
Quote:
Every person is ignorant, just on different subjects.
(Will Rogers)
Week of 11-14-08:
Word:
Succeed:
To accomplish what is attempted or intended; to happen or terminate according to desire; turn out successfully; have the desired result; to turn out well, to attain a goal.
Quote:
In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.
(Bill Cosby)
Week of 11-7-08:
Word:
Education:
The act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge; developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.
Quote:
Education is a lifelong process; it should only stop when you do.
(Dennis Kimbro)
October 2008
Week of 10-31-08:
Word:
Privilege:
Any of the rights common to all citizens under a modern constitutional government; the principle or condition of enjoying special rights or immunities.
Quote:
A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.
(Dwight Eisenhower)
Week of 10-24-08:
Word:
Chance:
Opportunity.
Quote:
A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put its pants on..
(Winston Churchill)
Week of 10-17-08:
Word:
Idea:
Any conception existing in the mind as a result of mental understanding, awareness, or activity; a concept developed by the mind.
Quote:
College isn’t the place to go for ideas.
(Helen Keller)
Week of 10-10-08:
Word:
Seduction:
Enticement; temptation.
Quote:
It is your work in life that is the ultimate seduction.
(Pablo Picasso)
Week of 10-3-08:
Word:
Believe:
To have confidence in the truth, the existence, or the reliability of something, although without absolute proof that one is right in doing so.
Quote:
Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense. (Buddha)
September 2008
Week of 9-26-08:
Word:
Courage:
The quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery.
Quote:
Courage does not always roar. Sometimes it is a quiet voice at the end of the day, saying “I will try again tomorrow.”
(Anonymous)
Week of 9-19-08:
Word:
Schooling:
Instruction, education, or training, especially when received in a school.
Quote:
I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
(Mark Twain)
Week of 9-12-08:
Word:
Even:
On the same level; in the same plane or line; parallel; equally balanced or divided; equal; equitable, impartial, or fair.
Quote:
The only thing even in this world are the number of hours in a day. The difference in winning or losing is what you do with those hours.
(Woody Hayes)
Week of 9-5-08:
Word:
Serenity:
The state or quality of being serene, calm, or tranquil.
Quote:
God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the one I am, and the wisdom to know it’s me.
(Anonymous)
August 2008
Week of 8-29-08:
Word:
Insincere:
Not sincere; not honest in the expression of actual feeling; hypocritical.
Quote:
The most exhausting thing in life, I have discovered, is being insincere.
(Anne Morrow Lingbergh)
Week of 8-22-08:
Word:
Labor:
Productive activity, especially for the sake of economic gain; physical or mental work, especially of a hard or fatiguing kind; toil; a job or task done or to be done.
Quote:
All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
(Martin Luther King, Jr.)
Week of 8-15-08:
Word:
Radiant:
Bright with joy, hope, etc.
Quote:
What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence of the child and the feeble mentality of the average adult.
(Sigmund Freud)
Week of 8-8-08:
Word:
Prodigious:
Extraordinary in size, amount, extent, degree, force, etc; wonderful or marvelous; abnormal; monstrous.
Quote:
I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a week sometimes to make it up.
(Mark Twain)
Week of 8-1-08:
Word:
Naive:
Having or showing unaffected simplicity of nature or absence of artificiality; unsophisticated; ingenuous; having or marked by a simple, unaffectedly direct style reflecting little or no formal training or technique.
Quote:
Every true genius is bound to be naive.
(Friedrich Schiller)
July 2008
Week of 7-25-08:
Word:
Idea:
Any conception existing in the mind as a result of mental understanding, awareness, or activity; a thought, conception, or notion.
Quote:
College isn’t the place to go for ideas.
(Helen Keller)
Week of 7-18-08:
Word:
Worry:
To torment oneself with or suffer from disturbing thoughts; fret; a worried condition or feeling; uneasiness or anxiety.
Quote:
The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.
(Robert Frost)
Week of 7-11-08:
Word:
They:
Used to refer to the ones previously mentioned or implied.
Quote:
All good people agree, And all good people say, All nice people like us are We, And everyone else is They; But if you cross over the sea, Instead of over the way, You may end up looking on We, As only a sort of They!
(Rudyard Kipling)
Week of 7-4-08:
Word:
Orientation:
The ascertainment of one’s true position, as in a novel situation, with respect to attitudes, judgments, etc.
Quote:
It is not reason that gives us our moral orientation, it is sensitivity.
(Maurice Barres)
June 2008
Week of 6-27-08:
Word:
Enlarge:
To increase the
capacity or scope of; expand.
Quote:
Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does
enlarge the future.
(Paul Boese)
Week of 6-20-08:
Word:
Failure:
An act or instance of failing or
proving unsuccessful; lack of success.
Quote:
Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more
intelligently.
(Henry Ford)
Week of 6-13-08:
Word:
Knowledge:
The fact or state of knowing;
the perception of fact or truth; clear and certain mental apprehension; the body
of truths or facts accumulated in the course of time.
Quote:
An invesment in knowledge pays the best
interest.
(Benjamin Franklin)
Week of 6-6-08:
Word:
Key:
Chief, major, important; essential;
fundamental; pivotal.
Quote:
Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is
the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be
successful.
(Albert Schweitzer)
May 2008
Week of 5-30-08:
Word:
Eschew:
To abstain or keep away from; shun;
avoid: to eschew evil; circumvent, boycott;
forgo.
Obfuscation:
Confusion resulting from failure to
understand; the activity of obscuring people’s understanding, leaving them
baffled or bewildered; darkening or obscuring the sight of
something.
Quote:
Eschew
obfuscation.
(Anonymous)
Week of 5-23-08:
Word:
Progress:
A move under progress toward a goal
or to a further or higher stage
Quote:
Everyone's in favor of progress; it's change they
don't like.
(Anonymous)
Week of 5-16-08:
Word:
Desert:
To leave (a person, place, etc.)
without intending to return, esp. in violation of a duty, promise, or the like;
to forsake or leave one's duty, obligations, etc.
Quote:
We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at
home.
(Edward R. Murrow)
Week of 5-9-08:
Word:
Odious:
Deserving or causing hatred;
hateful; detestable; highly offensive; repugnant; disgusting.
Quote:
Punishment is now unfashionable...
because it creates moral distinctions among men, which, to the democratic mind,
are odious. We prefer a meaningless collective guilt to a meaningful individual
responsibility.
(Thomas Szasz)
Week of 5-2-08:
Word:
Tolerable:
Capable of being borne or
endured: "the climate is at least tolerable"; about average; acceptable;
bearable, supportable; passable, middling, indifferent, so-so.
Quote:
What is the use of a house if you
haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?
(Henry David Thoreau)
The week of
03-28-08:
Word:
Fact:
Something that actually exists;
reality; truth.
Something known to exist or to have happened.
A truth known
by actual experiance or observation; something known to be true.
Quote:
It is not so very important for a person
to learn facts. For that he does not really need a college. He can learn them
from books. The value of an education in a liberal arts college is not learning of
many facts but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned
from textbooks.
(Albert Einstein)
The week of
03-21-08:
Word:
Impossible:
Not possible; unable to be,
exist, happen, etc.
Unable to be done, performed, affected, etc.
Quote:
Attempt the impossible in order to
improve your work.
(Bette Davis)
The week of
03-14-08:
Word:
Fair:
Free from bias, dishonesty, or
injustice: a fair decision; Legitimately sought, pursued, done, given, etc.;
proper under the rules.
Quote:
Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you
are a good person is a little like expecting the bull not to attack you because
you are vegetarian.
(Dennis Wholey)
The week of
03-07-08:
Word:
Entitlement:
Expected reward;
right.
Quote:
The sense of
entitlement, the sense that because we once dominated global commerce and
geopolitics - and Olympic basketball - we always will, the sense that delayed
gratification is a punishment worse than a spanking, the sense that our kids
have to be swaddled in cotton wool so that nothing bad or disappointing or
stressful ever happens to them at school is, quite simply, a growing cancer on
American society. And if we don't start to reverse it, our kids are going to be
in for a huge and socially disruptive shock from the flat world.
(Thomas L.
Friedman in The World Is Flat)
Quote:
Wit is educated insolence.
(Aristotle)
The week of
1-11-08:
Word:
Perseverance:
Steady persistence in a
course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., esp. in spite of difficulties,
obstacles, or discouragement.
Quote:
The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is
that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won’t.
(Henry
Ward Beecher)
The week of
1-4-08:
Word:
Intolerant:
Not tolerating or respecting
beliefs, opinions, usages, manners, etc; different from one's own, as in
political or religious matters; bigoted.
Quote:
My mother said I must always be intolerant of
ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to
school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.
(Maya Angelou)