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Excerpts

Preface

There's Nothing New Under the Sun...

What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there anything of which one can say,
"Look! This is something new"?
It was here already long ago;
it was here before our time.

-- Ecclesiastes 1:9-10

...or in This Book

One of the observations that many readers of my first book, Life's Greatest Lessons, made was that I didn't try to sell them a "startling and new" formula for permanent success and total happiness. Instead, they expressed their appreciation for the way I'd pulled together some simple truths that had been around for a long time and presented them in a logical, commonsense manner that helped people get back on the right track. The CEO of a large insurance firm called and told me, "What you wrote about is so old it's revolutionary." And then he added, "But we need to be reminded about these old truths because too often we get sidetracked and forget about what's really important." I really liked that man. I liked him even more when he bought a book for every employee in his company.

Hundreds of people have made similar comments, and each one was taken as a compliment. Because shedding new light on old truths was exactly what I was trying to do. Now I'm trying to do it again. You probably won't find anything new in this book about words and the way we use them. You'll just be reminded that what you say, and how you say it, can, indeed, be important. Even life changing.

The world does not require so much to be informed as to be reminded.

-- Hannah More

Copyright © 2004 by Hal Urban