Scriptures to live by & a nifty quote

"Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven, and you are on earth. So let your words be few."
- Ecclesiastes 5:2

"Do not be overrighteous,
       neither be overwise—
       why destroy yourself?"
-Ecclesiastes 7:16


Here's what the ESV Study Bible says about the latter verse:
"Be not overly righteous. The Preacher is not advocating moral laxity (cf. 8:12–13). Bearing in mind that he is using the term “righteous” in the sense of being “right in one's cause” (see note on 7:15), his counsel is a warning against the obsession of always being proved right in an argument or dispute. To insist on this is ultimately self-destructive: people who have to win every argument will eventually alienate everyone around them. See 1 Cor. 6:7 for Paul's advice on this."

17 Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. e Why should you die before your time? 18 It is good that you should take hold of f this, and from g that h withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them.
-Ecclesiastes 7:17-18
again from the ESV Study Bible (nice work by Max Roglund, a Cov Sem grad!):
"Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. By the same token (cf. note on v. 16), a willingness to suffer wrong, if not tempered with the wisdom to know when to insist on the justice of one's cause, can also lead to self-destruction. One must strike the proper balance between the two principles (v. 18)."


"Most men are not satisfied with the permanent output of their lives. Nothing can wholly satisfy the life of Christ within his followers except the adoption of Christ’s purpose toward the world he came to redeem. Fame, pleasure and riches are but husks and ashes in contrast with the boundless and abiding joy of working with God for the fulfillment of his eternal plans."
                                                      - J. Campbell White