Getty Quotes

sticks and stones might break your bones, but cement pays homage to tradition.

In times of rapid change, experience could be your worst enemy.

The conformist is not born. He is made. I believe the brainwashing process begins in the schools and colleges.

If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars.

If you owe the bank $100, that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem.

Formula for Success- Rise Early, Work Hard, Strike Oil

The meek shall inherit the Earth, but not its mineral rights.

It has always been my contention that an individual who can be relied upon to be himself and to be honest unto himself can be relied upon in every other way.

There is, however, hope for any person who wants to remain an individual. He can assert himself and refuse to conform. He'll be on his own, that's true, but while he will not have the security enjoyed by those who do conform, there will be no limits to what he may achieve.

Formula for success: rise early, work hard, strike oil. J.Paul Getty

The man who comes up with a means for doing or producing anything better, faster or more economically has his future and his fortune at his fingertips.

We sing because we're created to, commanded to, and compelled to.

Let's have some precision in language here: terrorism means deadly violence -- for a political and/or economical purpose -- carried out against people and other living things, and is usually conducted by governments against their own citizens (as at Kent State, or in Vietnam, or in Poland, or in most of Latin America right now), or by corporate entities such as J. Paul Getty, Exxon, Mobil Oil, etc etc., against the land and all creatures that depend upon the land for life and livelihood. A bulldozer ripping up a hillside to strip mine for coal is committing terrorism; the damnation of a flowing river followed by the drowning of Cherokee graves, of forest and farmland, is an act of terrorism. Sabotage, on the other hand, means the use of force against inanimate property, such as machinery, which is being used (e.g.) to deprive human beings of their rightful work (as in the case of Ned Ludd and his mates); sabotage (le sabot dropped in a spinning jenny) -- for whatever purpose -- has never meant and has never implied the use of violence against living creatures.

If one could be enraged by the loss of a favorite sports team, shouldn't his anger rise at the entrenchment of a scheme whereby no innocent person was safe, where self-determination was a crime punished by the vagaries of an opaque & impervious justice system?

The biggest spur to my interest in art came when I played van Gogh in the biographical film Lust For Life. The role affected me deeply. I was haunted by this talented genius who took his own life, thinking he was a failure. How terrible to paint pictures and feel that no one wants them. How awful it would be to write music that no one wants to hear. Books that no one wants to read. And how would you like to be an actor with no part to play, and no audience to watch you. Poor Vincent—he wrestled with his soul in the wheat field of Auvers-sur-Oise, stacks of his unsold paintings collecting dust in his brother's house. It was all too much for him, and he pulled the trigger and ended it all. My heart ached for van Gogh the afternoon that I played that scene. As I write this, I look up at a poster of his "Irises"—a poster from the Getty Museum. It's a beautiful piece of art with one white iris sticking up among a field of blue ones. They paid a fortune for it, reportedly $53 million. And poor Vincent, in his lifetime, sold only one painting for 400 francs or $80 dollars today. This is what stimulated my interest in buying works of art from living artists. I want them to know while they are alive that I enjoy their paintings hanging on my walls, or their sculptures decorating my garden

In my own opinion, the average American's cultural shortcomings can be likened to those of the educated barbarians of ancient Rome. These were barbarians who learned to speak--and often to read and write--Latin. They acquired Roman habits of dress and deportment. Many of them handily mastered Roman commercial, engineering and military techniques--but they remained barbarians nonetheless. They failed to develop any understanding, appreciation or love for the art and culture of the great civilization around them.

There are one hundred men seeking security to one able man who is willing to risk his fortune.

The beauty one can find in art is one of the pitifully few real and lasting products of human endeavor.

There are ultimately no neutral lyrics. All songs share a message about how we should view the world.

There is obviously something wrong with our educational system. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that there might even be something wrong with at least some of our schoolteachers. But heaven help anyone daring to express such heretical views.

The majority is by no means omniscient just because it is the majority. In fact, I've found that the line which divides majority opinion from mass hysteria is often so fine as to be virtually invisible.

....in Bosnia, mass rape was a policy of the war, systematically carried out, implicating neighbors, paramilitaries, soldiers.

It shouldn't be very difficult for anyone to resist the temptation to force himself into the pattern of the structured man. One needs only to remember that a groove may be safe--but that, as one wears away at it, the groove becomes first a rut and finally a grave.

In the early twentieth century, George Getty, an attorney from Minneapolis, began his family’s quest for oil in the eastern part of Osage territory, on a parcel of land, Lot 50, that he’d leased for $500. When his son, Jean Paul Getty, was a boy, he visited the area with him.

Singing together bears compelling witness to the truth. It says to those watching on and listening in that, just as we sing the same melody together, we share the same faith, the Faith; not a self-made creed for a solo journey toward nowhere, but commitment to our one Lord of all, who transforms the life we live together and will bring us home to eternity.

Something could be beautiful, humane, encompassing. Or it could be made ugly. And maybe that was the lesson. We bring to a tradition what is already within ourselves, however our moral compass is designed, whatever our ethical training is. And then the tradition speaks.

Formula for success: Rise early, work hard, strike oil.

Without the element of uncertainty, the bringing off of even, the greatest business triumph would be dull, routine, and eminently unsatisfying.

My formula for success is rise early, work late, and strike oil.

There are one hundred people seeking security to one able person who is willing to risk his fortune.

Without knowing anything else about him, i already know he'd be worth the hurt.

The culture of power versus the power of culture,” he quoted. “One side always loses.

Age doesn't matter, unless you're cheese.

The words we sing should include thoughts that stir us to action and challenge us with the call of Christ in our lives.

Nothing about multiculturalism antagonized Rachel. She liked all kinds of food, clothing, cultural customs, and music. The one thing that held her aloof was a fear of offending through ignorance.

In some respects, a society in which the members reach a universal level in which they are anonymous drones by choice is even more frightening than one in which they are forced to be so against their will. When human beings relinquish their individuality and identity of their own volition, they are also relinquishing their claim to being human.

Patriotism, nationalism,' she said impatiently. 'Call it what you wish. Mine the only flag, mine the only way. All else is inferior, trample it underfoot. Despise it, detest it.

It's the ones who smile at you while they're plotting in the dark that I've learned to worry about. Sometimes the monsters we fear aren't on the opposite side" Esa Khattak

Your voice may not be of professional standard, but it is of confessional standard.

Vedi, Kamala, se tu getti una pietra nell’acqua, essa si affretta per la via più breve fino al fondo. E così è di Siddharta, quando ha una meta, un proposito. Siddharta non fa nulla. Siddharta pensa, aspetta, digiuna, ma passa attraverso le cose del mondo come la pietra attraverso l’acqua, senza far nulla, senza agitarsi: viene scagliato, ed egli si lascia cadere. La sua meta lo tira a sè, poichè egli non conserva nulla nell’anima propria, che potrebbe contrastare a questa meta. Questo è ciò che Siddharta ha imparato dai Samana. Questo è ciò che gli stolti chiamano magia, credono che sia opera dei demoni. Ognuno può compiere opera di magia, ognuno può raggiungere i propri fini, se sa pensare, se sa aspettare, se sa digiunare [...]

...this is Iran. They're hardly going to hand you a phone number on a napkin. Iran is no different from anywhere else, except that young people have to be more creative when it comes to expressing their interest.

And why are you wearing plastic? It's not plastic, Nate said, affronted. It's the same material mountain climbers use for protection at high altitudes. Hmm she said. You know Toronto's almost at sea level, right?

God designed our psyche for singing. When singing praise to God, so much more than just the vocal box is engaged. God has created our minds to judge pitch and lyric; to think through the concepts we sing; to engage the intellect, imagination, and memory; and to remember what is set to a tune... God has formed our hearts to be moved with depth of feeling and a whole range of emotion as the melody-carried truths of who God is and whose we are sink in.

Humanism in Five Images 29. Humanist Politics: the voter knows best. 29.​© Sadik Gulec/Shutterstock.com. 30. Humanist Economics: the customer is always right. 30.​© CAMERIQUE/ClassicStock/Corbis. 31. Humanist Aesthetics: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. (Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain in a special exhibition of modern art at the National Gallery of Scotland.) 31.​© Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images. 32. Humanist Ethics: if it feels good – do it! 32.​© Molly Landreth/Getty Images. 33. Humanist Education: think for yourself! 33.​The Thinker, 1880–81 (bronze), Rodin, Auguste, Burrell Collection, Glasgow © Culture and Sport Glasgow (Museums)/Bridgeman Images.

Humanism in Five Images 29. Humanist Politics: the voter knows best. 29. © Sadik Gulec/ Shutterstock.com. 30. Humanist Economics: the customer is always right. 30. © CAMERIQUE/ ClassicStock/ Corbis. 31. Humanist Aesthetics: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. (Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain in a special exhibition of modern art at the National Gallery of Scotland.) 31. © Jeff J Mitchell/ Getty Images. 32. Humanist Ethics: if it feels good–do it! 32. © Molly Landreth/ Getty Images. 33. Humanist Education: think for yourself! 33. The Thinker, 1880–81 (bronze), Rodin, Auguste, Burrell Collection, Glasgow © Culture and Sport Glasgow (Museums)/ Bridgeman Images.

Mais l idéologie proclamée de Forest Lawn est la même que celle du musée Getty qui est gratuitement ouvert au public. C est l idéologie de la conservation, au Nouveau Monde, des trésors que l imprévoyance et le désintérêt du Vieux Monde sont en train de réduire a néant. Naturellement cette ideologie occulte quelque chose: le desir du profit, dans le cas du cimetiere, et, dans le cas de Getty, le fait que la colonisation affairiste du Nouveau Monde (dont fait partie aussi l empire petrolier de Paul Getty) a affaibli le le Vieux. Cest exactement les larmes de crocodile du patricien romain qui reproduisait les grandeurs de cette Grece que son pays avait rabaissee au rang de colonie.

Bowl? The Getty pavilions? LACMA? The Theatricum Botanicum? The Bob Baker Marionette Theater? The Watts Towers? The Museum of Jurassic Technology? Did Sadie have magic friends and had she been to the Magic Castle? Had she tried green juice? Had she ever gone to the donut place that looked like a donut? Hot dogs were gross, but had she been to Pink’s? Had she taken one of those tours of celebrity homes on the double-decker buses? Had she been to the restaurant that was built around a tree? What was her favorite place to hear live music? The Whisky a Go Go? The Palladium? The Troubadour? What was her favorite part of town? Which canyon was her favorite for hiking? The sun was always out and it never rained, wasn’t that so great?

Globe-trotting is just the chance to feel bored more places, faster. A boring breakfast in Bali. A predictable lunch in Paris. A tedious dinner in New York, and falling asleep, drunk, during just another blow job in L.A. Too many peak experiences, too close together. “Like the Getty Museum,” Inky says. “Lather, rinse, and repeat,” says the Global Airlines wino. In the boring new world of everyone in the upper-middle class, Inky says, nothing helps you enjoy your bidet like peeing in the street for a few hours. Give up bathing until you stink, and just a hot shower feels as good as a trip to Sonoma for a detoxifying mud enema. “Think of it,” Inky says, “as a kind of poverty sorbet, a nice little window of misery that helps you enjoy your real life.

PAUL JELLINEK: I’m in a weird position when it comes to Bernadette. Everyone looks to me, because I was there, and I never gave her the chance to alienate me. But she built only two houses, both for herself. They were great buildings, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying it’s one thing when you build a house with no client, no budget, and no time constraints. What if she had to design an office building, or a house for someone else? I don’t think she had the temperament. She didn’t get along with most people. And what kind of architect does that make you? It’s because she produced so little that everyone is able to canonize her. Saint Bernadette! She was a young woman in a man’s world! She built green before there was green! She was a master furniture maker! She was a sculptor! She called out the Getty on its wasteful ways! She founded the DIY movement! You can say anything you want, and what’s the evidence against it?

My evanescent anarchistic tendencies are purely classical. I use the word anarchist in the sense in which it was understood by the ancient Greeks. They, of course, accepted the anarchist as a fairly respectable--if somewhat vehement--opponent of government encroachment on the individual's rights to think and act freely. It is in this sense that I glimpse myself as an anarchist--regretting the growth of government and the ever-increasing trend toward regulation and, worst of all, standardization of human activity.

A man, scientist or not, who can manipulate nature through vivisection or any means to this end does not practice science but instead knows it––and possesses a power that no man should wield, for this work no man should have wrought. —William J. Getty, M.D., F.R.S.C. (Professor of Surgery in the Anatomy Department of the University of Medical Science, New York)

Your singing on Sunday will bear witness to the Savior of the world and fuel your witness through the week to the Savior of the world.

The tender grace of a day that is dead will never come back to me.

Age does not bring you wisdom, age brings you wrinkles.

Then, the stunningly white cubes that make up the Getty Museum. It’s an architectural masterpiece funded by a venal billionaire’s trust, housing third-rate art. Pure L.A.: might makes right and packaging is all. Traffic

Why here?” Skender asked him. “Why not the café in front of Ferhadija?” Esa smiled, but behind the smile was a sense of being haunted. “I wanted to pay my respects,” he said. “I feel the presence of old ghosts.

Wealthy people so often find that the summit of their mountains - the success that they sought - isn’t enough. And they are right. It isn’t enough to satisfy our deep hunger for meaning and purpose. (And we will talk about that later on.) In essence, you have got to build your house on good foundations - on rock, not sand - and money as a goal in itself will never satisfy you. So choose wisely. And be careful what you wish for. When you start putting the correct steps into place, good things will start to happen. So you have got to be prepared for the success when it comes. Money can make the path more comfortable, but it will never remove the potholes. The billionaire John Paul Getty famously said: ‘I would give everything I own for one happy marriage.’ That is pretty telling. Money doesn’t solve all your ills. In fact, money, like success, tends, instead, to magnify your life - and if you are living with the wrong values, money will make things much worse. Conversely, if you get it right, money can be an incredible blessing. So always keep referring back to page 15 at the start of this book. Look at your dream. Never lose sight of it, because if you attain it, you will be rich beyond measure…and I’m not talking dollars and cents.

Appeasing the architects of the war

In business, as in politics, it is never easy to go against the beliefs and attitudes held by the majority. The businessman who moves counter to the tide of prevailing opinion must expect to be obstructed, derided and damned.

Without a story of your own to live, you haven’t got a life of your own.

billionaires J. Paul Getty remarked that he’d rather have 1% of the effort of 100 men than 100% of his own effort.

Try to keep your soul young and quivering right up to old age, and to imagine right up to the brink of death that life is only beginning. I think that is the only way to keep adding to one’s talent, to one’s affections, and to one’s inner happiness.

Formula for success: Rise early, work hard, strike oil. —J. Paul Getty H

She will always be a white girl who acted black. And try as she might—and she is trying, mightily—to have us forget the athletic exploits and superstardom of Bruce, Caitlyn isn’t ever going to be just Caitlyn. She’ll always be Formerly Bruce. That’s the price she pays for Bruce’s fame. There isn’t, in the end, much you can really do about your true self. That fleeting glimpse we get in the mirror or in a candid shot on Facebook, the one that looks too fat or old or white or male, the one that makes us say, “That isn’t me! That can’t be me!”—well, it is. It’s you. It’s me. It’s us. And though we wish it were not so, there is no app for that. Adventures in National Socialism Notes from a weekend with Bernie ANDREW HARRER/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES BY KEVIN D.

L'acero giapponese al centro della casa è illuminato da alcuni faretti che rendono nitida la percezione di ogni sua foglia. Il messaggio è chiaro: ogni cosa, per quanto piccola, è importante. Ogni dettaglio è fondamentale. Lasciate che la storia pensi di aver vinto. Lasciate che i monumenti, e i grandi uomini, si si godano i loro trionfi di marmo e titoli altisonanti. Quello che fa la vita sono le cose piccole, i dettagli: i minuti della giornata, sono quelli l'eternità. Le cose che mangi, le cose che fioriscono e appassiscono, le cose che getti, un bacio, l'ultimo sorso di vino, la luce che si rifrange su un vetro e parte per l'infinito, la voce delle stelle nei radiotelescopi, il guizzo della lingua di un camaleonte, una goccia che cade da molti chilometri d'altezza. Immagina di essere quella goccia, immaginati cadere. Il mio cuore danza. Danza e si solleva e si riabbassa, come un derviscio che ruota e ruota e ruota a occhi chiusi e quel suo roteare è una preghiera. Credo in ogni minuto, in ogni istante. Gli angeli si nascondono lì, nel tempo minimo tra le grandi ere. Nei minuti, negli abbracci dimenticati. E' lì che li può trovare lo sguardo di un bambino, o di un saggio. E' lì che gli angeli tessono la trama della vita, intrecciando il mondo con il cielo.

I always     considered scientific opinion more objective than esthetic judgments," the Getty's curator of antiquities Marion True said when the truth about the kouros finally emerged. "Now I realize I was wrong.

Getty’s 55-cent-a-barrel royalty to the Saudis loomed over Aminoil’s 35-cent royalty to Kuwait, the roughly 33-cent royalty that Aramco had just been compelled to pay the Saudis—and far overshadowed the 16½ cents that Anglo-Iranian and the Iraq Petroleum Company were paying in Iran and Iraq respectively, as well as the 15-cent royalty that the Kuwait Oil Company was paying.

Ja vēlaties kļūt bagāts, jums jādara trīs lietas: agri jāceļas, smagi jāstrādā un jāizdara vērtīgs atklājums.

The land looks flat from above, but these Chinese rice paddies are terraced for a better yield. Farmers have created these “steps” in China and the Philippines for as long as two millennia; they’re considered a marvel of ancient engineering. (JIALIANG GAO/GETTY IMAGES. ZUBIN LI/GETTY IMAGES)

The most powerful medicine on the face of the Earth is not drug medications, dietary supplements, or invasive therapies; rather, it is a healthy lifestyle.

«Pensi di poter semplicemente ritornare nella mia vita e che io mi getti nel tuo letto come se niente fosse?». Il suo sguardo crebbe nuovamente d’intensità. «Se potessi buttarti nel mio letto in questo momento sapendo che ci rimarresti? Lo farei in un attimo, Violet».

The meek may inherit the earth, J. Paul Getty once said, but they can forget about the mineral rights.

Gamers play with vintage video games, including the Atari system developed by the black entrepreneur Jerry Lawson. (Lucas Oleniuk/Toronto Star/Getty Images)

Steel Company 43 J. Paul Getty 50.1 United States Getty Oil Company 44 James G. Fair 47.2 United States Consolidated

The culture of power versus the power of culture. One side consistently loses." "We've a kind of Andalusia in this country," he teased, hoping to lighten her mood. "Yes," she said seriously. "That's very true, but less true I think across the border. Inquisitions, pogroms, genocides⁠—those are end-points. Demonizing, fear, the passing of laws of exclusion, the burning of libraries⁠—these are beginnings. Historians are vigilant as to beginnings. Too often we fail.

So Disney merely has to stoop down to pick up reality as it is. 'Built-in spectacle', as Guy Debord would say. But we are no longer in the society of the spectacle, which has itself become a spectacular concept. It is no longer the contagion of spectacle which alters reality, it is the contagion of the virtual which obliterates the spectacle. With its diverting, distancing effects, Disneyland still represented spectacle and folklore, but with Disneyworld and its tentacular extension, we are dealing with a generalized metastasis, with a cloning of the world and of our mental universe, not in the imaginary register, but in the viral and the virtual. We are becoming not alienated, passive spectators, but interactive extras, the meek, freeze-dried extras in this immense reality show. This is no longer the spectacular logic of alienation, but a spectral logic of disembodiment; not a fantastic logic of diversion, but a corpuscular logic of transfusion, transubstantiation of each of our cells. An undertaking of radical deterrence of the world, then, but from the inside this time, not from outside, as we saw in what is now the almost nostalgic world of capitalist reality. In virtual reality the extra is no longer either an actor or a spectator; he is off-stage, he is a transparent operator. And Disney wins on yet another level. Not content with obliterating the real by turning it into a 3-D, but depthless, virtual image, it obliterates time by synchronizing all periods, all cultures in the same tracking shot, by setting them alongside each other in the same scenario. In this way, it inaugurates real time — time as a single point, one-dimensional time, a thing which is also without depth: neither present, past nor future, but the immediate synchrony of all places and all times in the same timeless virtuality. The lapsing or collapsing of time: this is the real fourth dimension . The dimension of the virtual, of real time, the dimension which, far from superadding itself to the three dimensions of real space, obliterates them all. So it has been suggested that in a century or a millennium, the old 'swords and sandals' epics will be seen as actual Roman films, dating from the Roman period, as true documentaries on Antiquity; that the Paul Getty Museum at Malibu, a pastiche of a villa from Pompeii, will be confused anachronistically with a villa from the third century B.C. (as will the works inside: Rembrandt and Fra Angelico will all be jumbled together in the same flattening of time); and that the commemoration of the French Revolution at Los Angeles in 1989 will be confused retrospectively with the real event. Disney achieves the de facto realization of this timeless Utopia by producing all events, past or future, on simultaneous screens, remorselessly mixing all the sequences as they would — or will — appear to a civilization other than our own. But this is already our civilization. It is already increasingly difficult for us to imagine the real, to imagine History, the depth of time, three-dimensional space - just as difficult as it once was, starting out from the real world, to imagine the virtual one or the fourth dimension.

I'm mad, crazy, insanely in love with Woody Allen. The man should be made a prince, a president, coach of his beloved New York Knicks. Anything he wants, give it to him, tax-free.

I have many gay friends. We have talked at great length and in depth about homosexuality, and to anyone who thinks that being gay is a choice, I want to go on record as saying that they couldn't be more wrong. No one wakes up one morning, at age 12 or 19 or 30, looks in the mirror, and says, "Yes, I think I'll be gay." Just as no one decides to be straight.

Of the future prospects of an illiterate society flush with weapons and drugs and rife with the divisions the Soviet occupation had suppressed...Afghanistan's tribal past, its uncertain future, with decades of war still to come. The oft-named graveyard of empires, with many of its dead yet to be counted.

The snowfall outside was a white wall of noiseless fury, the symmetry of the stars eclipsed by a cataract of quiet.

The individual who wants to reach the top in business must appreciate the might and force of habit. He must be quick to break those habits that can break him - and hasten to adopt those practices that will become the habits that help him achieve the success he desires.

What works: Stories about undocumented immigrants killing Americans Stories about citizens standing up to the government bureaucracy Stories about college students disrespecting the flag Stories about hate crime hoaxes Stories about liberal media outlets suppressing the truth And, whenever possible, stories involving attractive women (They could be the hero or the villain, it didn’t matter, but they had to be attractive.) “Job one is to titillate the audience,” the former producer said. “For celebrity stories, I had to pick the sexiest photos. And then I’d still hear, ‘Can you find hotter photos of her?’ Sigh. Okay, we’ll spend another thousand bucks on three photos from Getty.” It got to the point where the producer knew, without being told, which specific photos of Angelina Jolie the execs would expect to see. This sexualized approach spilled over to other parts of the show. If it was a quiet news day and the producers needed to fill a spare block, “we would look and see, what are the locals doing?” Fox tapped into its network of stations in big cities all across the country. “Then we would Google around to find the hottest reporter.” Workers striking in Detroit or rush hour flooding in Houston? Sometimes that’s how the editorial call was made.

When attacks like these happen in Somalia or Pakistan, they barely register a pulse.

The battle is everywhere, all the time.

The blue rain sank against the mullioned windows of the pub. The temperature had dropped. It was a good night to be indoors, drinking warm ale that nourished the throat as it spread its warmth to his toes.

There was no art to the mind's construction of the face. She couldn't tell. There was no way to know what kind of mind or soul had breathed beneath that invariably brittle arrangement of bones.

On the whole “the critics” distrust great wealth, but “the public” does not. On the whole “the critics” subscribe to the romantic view of man’s possibilities, but “the public” does not. In the end the Getty stands above the Pacific Coast Highway as one of those odd monuments, a palpable contract between the very rich and the people who distrust them least.

The Getty Museum & Library is a white monolith of modern architecture perched over one of the worst freeways in LA.  Accessible only by an electric tram,

You can easily buy shares in any of thirty-six publicly traded retail REITs, which offer yields topping 4 percent (on average). Examples of retail REITs include: • Getty Realty Corp. (GTY), which holds convenience stores and gas stations and has a yield of 4.42 percent • Four Corners Property Trust (FCPT), which holds more than five hundred restaurants in forty-four states and yields 4.18 percent • SITE Centers Corp. (SITC), which holds shopping centers in major metropolitan areas around the US and has a yield of 6.40 percent

Aim for your choices, like the Psalms, to give: * A vast vision of God's character * How we fit into God's redemption story * A broad understanding of human experience

Consider carefully the lyrics of the song you gather together for a particular service. Ask: * Is this true of who Christ is and all He has done and is doing and will do for us, in us, and through us? * Is this filled with the freedom of the gospel? * Does it provide language for sincere praise and renewed faith and loyal obedience? * What image of Christ is it giving to the unbeliever?

As you review the music afterward, ask: * Did the congregation sing well? * Was the Word proclaimed? * Was it honoring to the Lord?

Take liberties with style only where the congregation is confident in singing that song, so that what you are doing adds to, rather than detracts from, their ability to sing and enjoyment of it.

Sing to God and to those around you (or, if you're on stage, in front of you).

A good hymn is an organic whole where all the parts connect to one another in a thoughtful, coherent, and poetic way. When approaching a hymn lyric, we have found it helpful to imagine the hymn as a tree. We begin with the seed of an idea - what is the song about... Once that seed is planted in our imagination, we begin to grow the trunk and branches - the structure of the song. What is the thought flow, and what are the important ideas (knowing that a song can't carry everything you would ever want to say)? How will each verse develop the theme? If there is a chorus, what is the key thought that is worthy of repetition and that drives home the message of the song?

First lines are particularly important as they draw people in and help unlock the whole song. Last lines are also important, driving people toward a big vision or challenge of commitment or expression of praise. We are looking for delightful phrases, little twists on things we have heard before, both freshness and familiarity, easily understood but engaging.

One of the challenges in songwriting is aiming to inspire response through revelation and not tell or describe to people how to feel. Just as a joke only works if you don't have to tell a listener that it's funny, so it's much more effective to fill your verses and choruses about God than to tell people how to feel about Him.

John Newton, in the preface of one of his hymn collections published in 1779, wrote of those he was writing songs for that 'while my hand can write, and my tongue speak, it will be the business and pleasure of my life, to aim at promoting their growth and establishment in the grace of our God and Savior.

being vague and gospel-lite in congregational songs is not the way to be "seeker friendly." Communicating the gospel in a way that informs the mind and engages the emotions is. The gospel is the church's central lyrical distinctive.

Ensure that your church's song list includes hymns and songs that touch on all the major doctrines and seasons of life, just as the Psalms and historical hymnals do.