Some things change, and some don’t. My quotable quotes were interrupted for a while, as I made changes in my role and life…but I hope you find their return to be a pleasant surprise in the future. If this is your first time reading the Quotable Quotes, they are a light-hearted weekly post that I’ve passed onto friends from my own sources (none of that forwarded SPAM email we all love so much).

This week’s quotes are selected contents from John C. Maxwell’s Winning with People

“The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, not the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone else believes in you and is willing to trust you with a friendship.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Five Principles that deal with Trust:
1. The Bedrock Principle: Trust is the foundation of any relationship.
2. The Situation Principle: Never let the situation mean more than the relationship.
3. The Bob Principle: When Bob has a problem with everyone, Bob is usually the problem.
4. The Approachability Principle: Being at ease with ourselves helps others be at ease with us.
5. The Foxhole Principle: When preparing for battle, dig a hole big enough for a friend.

The Bedrock Principle: Am I a Trustworthy Person?
“It is a greater compliment to be trusted than to be loved.” ~ George MacDonald

“A blessed thing it is for any man or woman to have a friend, one human soul whom we can trust utterly, who knows the best and worst of us, and who loves us in spite of all our faults.” ~ Charles Kingsley

1. Trust begins with yourself:
“This above all: To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” ~ William Shakespeare

2. Trust cannot be Compartmentalized:
“One of the realities of life is that if you can’t trust a person at all points, you can’t truly trust him or her at any point.” ~ Cheryl Biehl

What a person will do with you, he’ll also do to you.

3. Trust works like a bank account:
Positive interactions make deposits, and negative ones withdrawl. A positive balance yields a good relationship, a negative balance will keep you from doing business.

What do you do when a person is untrustworthy?
1. Forgive them.
2. Explain that the violation must never happen again.
3. Remember their better moments.
4. Give them opportunities to rebuild trust.

Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple.
~ C. W. Ceran

Excellence is to do a common thing
in an uncommon way.
~ Booker T. Washington

Be sure to put your feet in the right place,
then stand firm.
~ Abraham Lincoln

Be the change you wish to see in the world.
~ Ghandi

A person who doubts himself
is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies
and bear arms against himself.
He makes his failure certain
by himself being the first person to be convinced of it.
~ Alexander Dumas

A difficult time can be more readily endured
if we retain the conviction that our existence holds a purpose—
a cause to pursue, a person to love, a goal to achieve.
~ John Maxwell, Scottish Noble

One’s dignity may be assaulted, vandalized, and cruelly mocked,
but it cannot be taken away unless it is surrendered.
~ Michael J. Fox

He who controls others may be powerful,
but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.
~ Lao Tzu

They say the world has become too complex for simple answers.
They are wrong.
~ Ronald Reagan

We find comfort among those who agree with us—
growth among those who don’t.
~ Frank A. Clark

Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second.
Give your dreams all you’ve got and you’ll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you!
~ William James

Relationships and the Claustrophobia that comes with commitment:

“…that’s when it occurred to me. I am stuck…the courtship was over, and the honeymoon had ended…went from an option to an obligation…from someone to play with to someone to care for…such permanence can lead to panic…”

(Paraphrased) There are three ways to cope: flee, fight or forgive. To flee is to wake up later in another relationship and face the same reality. To fight is to make tension a way of life: to turn the house into a combat zone, the office into a boxing ring.

To forgive: “Oh, I could never do that, you object. The hurt is so deep. The wounds are so numerous. Just seeing the person causes me to cringe…Try shifting your glance away from the one who hurt you and setting your eyes on the one who saved you.”

“But I’ve done nothing wrong…I am not the guilty party here…Neither was Jesus…the burden of bridge building falls on the strong one, not the weak one.”

“Relationships don’t thrive because the guilty are punished but because the innocent are merciful.”

Let Him live long enough in a heart, and that heart will begin to change…God can no more leave a life unchanged than a mother can leave her child’s tear untouched.

If you think His love for you would be stronger if your faith were, you are wrong. If you think His love would be deeper if your thoughts were, wrong again.

God’s love never ceases. Never. Though we spurn Him. Ignore Him. Reject Him. Despise Him. Disobey Him. He will not change (toward us). Our evil cannot diminish His love. Our goodness cannot increase it. Our faith does not earn it anymore than our stupidity jeopardizes it.