Meditations on Obama's Nobel

"However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?" - Buddha

"As I grow older I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do." - Andrew Carnegie

"We must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." - John F. Kennedy

"It is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart." ­- Mohandas Gandhi

"Talking isn't doing. - words are not deeds." - William Shakespeare

"Well done is better than well said." ­- Benjamin Franklin

"You must go through the experiences." - St. Augustine

"A promise is a cloud; fulfillment is rain." ­- Arabian Proverb

"An idea not coupled with action will never get any bigger than the brain cell it occupied." - Arnold Glasow

"Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement." - Alfred Adler

"When deeds speak, words are nothing." - African Proverb

"Talk doesn't cook rice." - Chinese Proverb

I strive to teach my children that "actions speak louder than words." I explain that their wishes and desires, although well intended, mean nothing until they do something.

Now, the Nobel committee, in giving one of the highest honors in the world, has set an example for children all over the world that mere talk and desire is enough. This is a mockery to all past laureates.

Judy Marshall

Cary