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A Toolbox for Humanity: More than 9000 Years of Thought

by Lloyd Albert Johnson

163 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #03-1325; ISBN 1-4120-0956-1; US$24.95, C$32.00, EUR20.80, £14.41

This book is a toolbox.
It provides a useful review of our human concerns.
If you believe the world can be a better place share this book with a youth.

Read more!

about the book      about the author      sample excerpts      catalogue info

About the Book Compiled and arranged by Lloyd Albert Johnson, A Toolbox for Humanity is a review of human thoughts and ideas. This volume presents the thoughts and quotations of others. These thoughts reach out to those who think about human tragedies and blessings. Our ancestors took their turn at life. It is our turn to imagine ourselves, all those to come, and what it is we share.

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About the Author Lloyd Albert Johnson was born in a small town in a place called Minnesota. He is the middle child in a large family. Lloyd was taught many skills by loving parents. After being publicly educated, he left home to work in the construction trades. Familiar with many tools, and comfortable in laboring, he never found himself without something to do. In his early twenties, he helped start up a business that repairs electro-mechanical equipment. More than twenty-five years later, and still happy fixing things, he has not lost his desire to imagine and build. Lloyd currently resides in a place called North Carolina, with his wife and their three children.

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Sample Excerpts

PREFACE

By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight,
we all quote.
In fact,
it is as difficult to appropriate
the thoughts of others
as it is to invent.
** Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882) **

From time to time,
the past will be the present.
** Bea N. Abbling (1953 - ) **

In this book you will find nearly 9000 years of thoughts:
thoughts of others, thoughts perhaps like your own.

This book is a collection of what other people said as
they reflected upon their surroundings, and themselves.
This book is about nature and the remarkable
experience we call life.

The thoughts gathered here are notable. In many cases,
these thoughts, saved by numerous generations, date
back thousands of years.

This book is a short review of that human story. It is
about humanity: our concerns, our ideas, and our deeds.

Messengers come to us in many forms:
cries speak like thunder, tears paint cheeks,
a thought comes to mind, footprints shape the land.
We are wise to observe, wiser yet to learn.

As nature touches us, nature teaches us.
Nature shares its wealth,
but we are not its only effort.

We struggle with our necessities.
We respond to contingencies.
We labor against pain.
We fight against evil.
We work to make things better than they are.

We have many tools at our disposal: our senses,
our memory, our judgment, and imagination.
We experience. We reason. We learn.
We develop habits, ideas, and mechanisms.
These are but a few of the tools we keep in our
uniquely human toolbox.

Language tells us much about the human story.
It tells of a great conversation.
Our ancestors even used language to ask us questions,
knowing they could never hear our answers.

We know our forebears labored for their needs.
They took their turn at life.
They struggled. They progressed. They suffered losses.
We will, too.
But it is our turn to imagine ourselves, and those to come.

Will our progress be beautiful to many?
Will it be desired by most?
Can we be satisfied?

This book is not a complete record of human events.
It is but a small portion of the great conversation.
This collection of thoughts teaches us something about
the flexibility of truth and the diversity of opinions,
while possibly supplying an outline for a satisfied and
good life.

Created from opinion, and acknowledging no authority,
this book is offered in hope of encouraging the further
improvement of the human condition.

Now, and in the future, may all tears come from the eyes
of newborns -- or rest on the cheeks of those who
celebrate life.

INTRODUCTION

The ideal condition would be, I admit, that men should be right by instinct; but since we are all likely to go astray, the reasonable thing is to learn from those who can teach.
** Sophocles (495 - 406 BC), Antigone **

And if thine eyes be turned towards justice, choose thou for thy neighbour that which thou choosest for thyself.
** Bahá'í Faith, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf **

Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.
** Buddhist Faith, Udana-Varga **

All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
** Christian Faith, Bible **

Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you.
** Confucianism, Analects **

This is the sum of duty: do naught to others which if done to thee would cause thee pain.
** Hindu Faith, Mahabharata **

Therefore, neither does he cause violence to others nor does he make others do so.
** Jain Faith, Acarangasutra **

What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow men. That is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary.
** Jewish Faith, Talmud **

No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.
** Muslim Faith, Hadith **

Whatever is disagreeable to yourself do not do unto others.
** Zoroastrian Faith, Shayast-na-Shayast **

Do not do to others that which would anger you if others did it to you.
** Socrates (469 - 399 BC) **

May I do to others as I would that they should do unto me.
** Plato (427? - 347? BC) **

Refrain from doing what you hate in others.
** Frank Lee Lloyd (1954 - ) **

If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out.
** Hammurabi's Code of Laws (1780 BC) **

If you are a terror to many, then beware of many.
** Ausonius (c. 310 - c. 395 AD) **

The finest piece of mechanism in the universe is the brain of man. The wise person develops his brain, and opens his mind to the genius and spirit of the world's great ideas. He will feel inspired with the purest and noblest thoughts that have ever animated the spirit of humanity.
** Alfred A. Montapert (1906 - 1997) **

To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.
** Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965) **

Things can be better than they are!
** Ancient Proverb **

In a world where there is so much to be done, I felt strongly impressed that there must be something for me to do.
** Dorothea Dix (1802 - 1887) **

Support the strong, give courage to the timid, remind the indifferent, and warn the opposed.
** Whitney M. Young, Jr. (1921 - 1971) **

To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage or of principle.
** Confucius (551 - 479 BC), The Confucian Analects **

Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.
** James Bryant Conant (1893 - 1978) **

Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream by night.
** Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849), Eleanora, 1842 **

There is only one admirable form of the imagination: the imagination that is so intense that it creates a new reality, that it makes things happen.
** Sean O'Faolain (1900 - 1991) **

To pity distress is but human; to relieve it is Godlike.
** Horace Mann (1796 - 1859) **

Even if it's a little thing, do something for those who have need of help, something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it.
** Albert Schweitzer (1875 - 1965) **

A man never stands so tall as when he kneels to help a child.
** Knights of Pythagoras **

Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs; avoid undue elation in prosperity, or undue depression in adversity.
** Socrates (469 - 399 BC) **

Every man is guilty of all the good he didn't do.
** Voltaire (1694 - 1778) **

Work and struggle, and never accept an evil that you can change.
** Andre Gide (1869 - 1951) **

If we don't change our direction soon, we run the risk of ending up exactly where we're headed.
** Professor Irwin Corey (1914 - ) **

When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.
** John Ruskin (1819 - 1900) **

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
** Anne Frank (1929 - 1945), Diary of a Young Girl, 1952 **

The man who is anybody and who does anything is surely going to be criticized, vilified, and misunderstood. That is part of the penalty fo greatness, and every great man understands it; and understands, too, that it is no proof of greatness. The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure continuously without resentment.
** Elbert Hubbard (1856 - 1915) **

Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.
** Jesus (4? BC - 29? AD ) **

The books that help you most are those which make you think the most. The hardest way of learning is that of easy reading; but a great book that comes from a great thinker is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and beauty.
** Theodore Parker (1810 - 1860) **

Verses which do not teach men new and moving truths do not deserve to be read.
** Voltaire (1694 - 1778) **

Treat the other man's faith gently; it is all he has to believe with. His mind was created for his own thoughts, not yours or mine.
** Henry S. Haskins (1875 - 19??) **

When you wish to instruct, be brief, that men's minds take in quickly what you say, learn its lesson, and retain it faithfully. Every word that is unnecessary only pours over the side of a brimming mind.
** Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 - 43 BC) **

The purpose of life is a life of purpose.
** Robert Byrne (1930 - ) **

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Catalogue Information

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