Quotes for the End of June

Socialization makes the individual want to do what he has to do; the family is the agency to which society entrusts this complex and delicate task. - Christopher Lasch

He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent. - Saint Augustine

A 2016 international survey of university counselling centres revealed 50 per cent of university students sought help for feelings of anxiety and 41 per cent for depression. Suicide rates are also increasing. The number of teenage girls in the U.S. who died by suicide nearly doubled between 2000 and 2015. The mental health statistics for Canadian youth are similarly grim. In 2003, 24 per cent of Canadians aged 15-30 self-reported that their mental health was either fair or poor (compared to very good or excellent). By 2019, that number had risen to 40 per cent.” The COVID-19 pandemic worsened the mental health of Canadian youths. In 2020, 58 per cent of Canadians aged 15-24 reported fair or poor mental health and nearly one in four hospitalizations for children and youth aged 5-24 were due to mental health conditions. What has changed in the last decade to explain this rise in poor mental health among youth? Some psychologists point to the recent cultural emphasis on safety as a contributor. Parental overprotection has been shown to foster unhealthy coping mechanisms in children. Overprotected children are more likely to both internalize problems (as in anxiety and depression) and externalize them (as in delinquency, defiance or substance abuse). Some psychologists propose that overprotection can morph into what they call “safetyism,” which teaches kids negative thought patterns similar to those experienced by the anxious and depressed. Safetyism can over-prioritize a young person’s safety to the exclusion of other practical and moral concerns. - Simon Sherry, Clinical Psychologist and Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Dalhousie University.

The better ambitions have to do with the development of character and ability, rather than status and power. Status you can lose. You carry character with you wherever you go, and it allows you to prevail against adversity. - Dr. Jordan Peterson

If we live good lives, the times are also good. As we are, such are the times. - Saint Augustine

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it. - Marcus Aurelius

You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it. - Margaret Thatcher

Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right. - Abraham Lincoln

The truth is something that burns, it burns off deadwood and people don’t like having their deadwood burnt off often because they’re 95 percent deadwood. - Dr. Jordan Peterson

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. - Psalm 1:1-2