You cannot lift another soul until you are standing on higher ground than he is. You cannot light a fire in another soul unless it is burning in your own soul.
Interpretation
One must first cultivate their own strengths and passions to effectively inspire and support others.
This quote speaks to the importance of personal development and self-awareness as prerequisites for helping others. It emphasizes that to truly uplift and inspire those around us, we must first ensure that we are in a position of strength and enlightenment ourselves; otherwise, our efforts may be ineffective or fall flat.
In practice
In a motivational speech to young leaders about the importance of personal development.
The one who confidently looks forward to an eternal reward for his efforts in mortality is constantly sustained through his deepest trials. When he is disappointed in love, he does not commit suicide. When loved ones die, he doesn’t despair; when he loses a coveted contest, he doesn’t falter; when war and destruction dissipate his future, he doesn’t sink into a depression. He lives above his world and never loses sight of the goal of his salvation.
You are equipped with strong bodies and educated minds. Add to these an unshakable faith in a divine providence and you have the tools by which you may build a successful life. Make each day your masterpiece and live so nobly that you may witness honestly each day: Whatever came to your hands this day, you did it to the best of your ability
Nor is the people's judgment always true: the most may err as grossly as the few.
The possibilities of creative effort connected with the subconscious mind are stupendous and imponderable. They inspire one with awe.
I cherish the dreams of yesterday and dare not dwell on the err's of my past whose fate has been long decided, and effect I can not change. For the dreams of yesterday are the challenges of today, and the hope for tomorrow.
Virtue rejects facility to be her companion. She requires a craggy, rough and thorny way.
Beware how you trifle with your marvelous inheritance, this great land of ordered liberty, for if we stumble and fall, freedom and civilization everywhere will go down in ruin.
I think we too often make choices based on the safety of cynicism, and what we're lead to is a life not fully lived. Cynicism is fear, and it's worse than fear - it's an active disengagement.
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