I have always been of the mind that in a democracy manners are the only effective weapons against the bowie-knife.
James Russell LowellRead
Not only around our infancy Doth heaven with all its splendors lie; Daily, with souls that cringe and plot, We Sinais climb and know it not.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the hidden struggles of life and the unrecognized potential within us.
James Russell Lowell's quote suggests that while we are surrounded by the beauty and wonder of existence from the very beginning of life, we often become entangled in our daily struggles and ambitions. The mention of 'souls that cringe and plot' speaks to the idea that many people are unaware of the potential within them and are instead focused on surviving rather than thriving, clambering metaphorically like the biblical 'Sinais' to reach greater heights without realizing the grandeur of their own existence.
In practice
In a motivational speech about overcoming hardships.
I have always been of the mind that in a democracy manners are the only effective weapons against the bowie-knife.
The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions.
Not failure, but low aim, is crime.
Good luck is the willing handmaid of upright, energetic character, and conscientious observance of duty.
Puritanism, believing itself quick with the seed of religious liberty, laid, without knowing it, the egg of democracy.
Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.
Desire and force between them are responsible for all our actions; desire causes our voluntary acts, force our involuntary.
In the current socio-political climate, he said to himself, committing suicide is absurd and redundant. Better to become an undercover poet.
Each activity of daily life in which we stretch ourselves on behalf of others is a prayer in action.
The older I get the more I'm convinced that it's the purpose of politicians and journalists to say the world is very simple, whereas it's the purpose of historians to say, 'No! It's very complicated.' _x000D_ _x000D_ The job of the historian is to help give people a sense of existence in time, without which we are really not fully human.
...it's easier to hold to your principles 100% of the time than it is to hold to them 98% of the time.
Peril, loneliness, an uncertain future, are not oppressive evils, so long as the frame is healthy and the faculties are employed; so long, especially, as Liberty lends us her wings, and Hope guides us by her star.
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