A native Philadelphian, Shane Hayes earned his bachelor’s and his law degree from Villanova University, and studied for a year at Princeton Theological Seminary. He worked as a writer/editor for Prentice Hall and an attorney for the federal government. His personal essays have appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and other wide-circulation media. He’s well into the writing of a novel tentatively titled The Believing Agnostic. He is married, has four children, and lives in suburban
Philadelphia.
EMAIL CONTACT: shanehayes@comcast.net
NOTE: LINKS to websites and blogs appear below. They represent a wide spectrum of belief and unbelief. This listing is not an endorsement of the opinions they express. The Believing Agnostic aims to encourage rational discourse among believers, unbelievers, and the uncommitted. If we want to be heard we must also listen.
The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated. – William James
Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sometimes the best way to “overcome” a thing is to duck round it as deviously as you can, and then forget it. (Grudges, for example.) -- SH
Grudges are heavy things. It wearies one to bear them. -- SH
Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand. -- Thomas Carlyle
Well done is better than well said. -- Benjamin Franklin
Of all the useful habits men can form I think the most widely neglected is the habit of growing. -- SH
The beginning is the most important part of the work. -- Plato
A man is strong as long as he represents a strong idea. He is helpless when he opposes it. -- Sigmund Freud
When you talk about a person, whether critically or otherwise, speak always as if that person could hear you -- candidly, yet with charity. -- SH
Today's challenge is the only one that need concern you. Meet it well. -- SH
One person seeks a midwife for his thoughts; the other, someone he can assist. Here is the origin of a good conversation. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
In the peace of God there is room also for what the world calls unbelief: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? This is the onslaught of death and hell. -- Karl Barth
Everyone, without exception, is searching for happiness. -- Blaise Pascal
The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love and something to hope for. -- Joseph Addison
There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval. -- George Santayana
View all vicissitudes as a challenge to your good nature. -- SH
There is no duty so much underrated as the duty of being happy. -- Robert Louis Stevenson
Don't worry too much about how you feel. A man is under no obligation to be happy at all times. As long as he behaves decently to his fellows he may be as miserable as he wants. -- SH
The joyfulness of a man prolongeth his days. -- Psalms
Pleasure is the object, duty and the goal of all rational creatures. -- Voltaire
Learn how to feel joy. -- Seneca
Keep a cool head, a benevolent heart, and a determined will. -- SH
The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. -- Benjamin Franklin
Some pursue happiness, others create it. -- Anon
Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. -- Abraham Lincoln
One emotion consumes as much energy as ten thoughts. So if you feel less and think more you will go farther with less effort. -- SH
Do your work; don't feel it. -- SH
William James paraphrased: "Pay primary attention to what you do and express, and don't care too much for what you feel."
Nothing is quite so futile as our mental efforts to undo the past. -- SH
You must continually unfasten yourself from the past. And that is not something you can do once: you must do it daily. For there is always a new past behind you. -- SH
If a man has important work, and enough leisure and income to do it properly, he is in possession of as much happiness as is good for any of the children of Adam. -- R. H. Tawney
The worst thing about cliches is that they make us disdainful of the profoundest truths. -- SH
We need others to make us critical of ourselves. -- Peter G. Federico
It is a funny thing about life: If you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often get it. -- William Somerset Maugham
It is a good rule always to behave as though you were a better man than you are. -- SH
Don't worry about having courage. Simply do the courageous thing. -- SH
The best philosophy is to do one's duty, to take the world as it comes, submit respectfully to one's lot, and bless the goodness that has given us so much happiness, whatever it is. -- Horace Walpole
"My whole strength is in this," he said, "that I know exactly who I am." SH
One of the surest marks of maturity in a man or an artist is that he doesn't overreach himself. -- SH
Work and love -- these are the basics. Without them there is neurosis. -- Theodore Reik
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