The Wisdom Chronicle is designed to bring nuggets of wisdom from the dozens of books I read every year in all genres. Each week, I endeavor to share the best of what I have gleaned. The determination of relevance lies with you. Blessings, Jim Whiddon

201. CONSTANT LEARNING “Know that when you are through learning, you are through.”
Excerpt From: Wooden, John. “Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court.”
202. BEN FRANKLIN’S VIRTUES
“Ben Franklin’s 13 Virtues
1. Temperance: Eat not to dullness and drink not to elevation.
2. Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling
conversation.
3. Order: Let all your things have their places. Let each part of your business
have its time.
4. Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you
resolve.
5. Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself: that is,
waste nothing.
6. Industry: Lose no time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all
unnecessary actions.
7. Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit. Think innocently and justly; and, if you
speak, speak accordingly.
8. Justice: Wrong none, by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your
duty.
9. Moderation: Avoid extremes. Forbear resenting injuries so much as you think
they deserve.
10. Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanness in body, clothes, or habitation.
11. Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring; never to dullness,
weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
12. Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or
unavoidable.
13. Humility: Imitate Jesus.
Excerpt From: Jim Stovall & Tim Maurer. “The Ultimate Financial Plan.”
203. HOLOCAUST “We’ve all heard of the yellow triangles the Jews were forced to wear for identification. Do you know the other colors that were used? Brown triangles identified gypsies and those of Roman descent. Purple triangles were worn by Jehovah’s Witnesses, Catholic priests, and Christian leaders who ran afoul of the government. Purple badges. Red and pink and brown. Blue and black. All worn by mothers and fathers and children who were not the first to be selected for the camps. Their badges were worn—their fates altered—well after they got a good look at the yellow ones.”
Excerpt From: Andrews, Andy. “How Do You Kill 11 Million People?.”
204. BLOOD “A speck of blood the size of this letter “o” contains 5,000,000 red cells, 300,000 platelets and 7,000 white cells. The fluid is actually an ocean stocked with living matter. Red cells alone, if removed from a single person and laid side by side, would carpet an area of 3,500 square yards.” “After a person spends a few months in the rarefied atmosphere of Colorado’s mountains, up to ten million red cells will fill each drop of blood, compensating for the thinner air. The pell-mell journey, even to the extremity of the big toe, lasts a mere twenty
seconds. An average red cell endures the cycle of loading, unloading, and jostling through the body for a half million round trips over four months. In one final journey, to the spleen, the battered cell is stripped bare by scavenger cells and recycled into new cells. Three hundred billion such red cells die and are replaced every day, leaving behind various parts to reincarnate in a hair follicle or a taste bud.*”
“The brain, master of the body, can survive intact only five minutes without replenishment.”
Excerpt From: Yancey, Philip. “In His Image.”
205. REPUTATION “There is no lost and found that you can visit to get your reputation back. Don’t let go of it.”
Excerpt From: David Avrin & Joe Calloway. “It’s Not Who You Know — It’s Who Knows You!.”
206. LIFE CHANGES “At times I’m struck by how strange it is that the same person [me] who has gone through so many life changes over the years can believe in this God who is still the same because He never changes.”
Excerpt From: Goff, Bob. “Love Does.”
207. FUNERALS “More lies are told at funerals than at any other occasion. They are forced out as the silent deceptions of a man’s character are finally dealt with at his memorial service. People spend lifetimes covering or ignoring the truth of who they are. Friends and family, who spent their lives playing along with the deception while they were alive, stick to the beloved’s script in the end.
In the moment of a funeral, the description bears almost no similarity to the actual people memorialized. Mourners flip the funeral program over to make sure they’re in the right service. If we were half the people in life others will say we were at our funerals we might have lives that don’t require such edits. It’s  bizarre type of courtesy paid to the bereaved. [But] there’s nothing so powerful as a life that speaks for itself. A life that is its own benediction. A life that is a translation of integrity. More than once I’ve thanked the deceased publicly for not forcing me to make things up at the end of their lives. You can’t rewrite the endings anyway. You might ignore them out of civility, but you can’t fix them. The more consistent the life, the easier the funeral is to preach. The best funeral preaches itself.
Excerpt From: Byron Forrest Yawn. “What Every Man Wishes His Father Had Told Him.”
208. GOD’S POLITICAL PARTY? “We exist to serve God. He doesn’t exist to serve us. No country, no political party, and no political ideology can own Him. He’s the boss.”
Excerpt From: Budziszewski, J. “How to Stay Christian in College.”
209. INFLUENCE “In order to learn about influence we must leave the comfort of models, linear sequences, and step-by-step recipes. The magic of influence is less in what we say and more in how we say it and who we are.”
Excerpt From: Simmons, Annette. “The Story Factor.”
210. HUMILITY Benjamin Franklin once said, “To be humble to superiors is duty, to equals courtesy, and to inferiors nobleness.”