Emotions get in the way but they don't pay me to start crying at the loss of 269 lives. They pay me to put some perspective on the situation.
Ted KoppelRead
Aspire to decency. Practice civility toward one another. Admire and emulate ethical behavior wherever you find it. Apply a rigid standard of morality to your lives; and if, periodically, you fail as you surely will adjust your lives, not the standards.
Interpretation
The quote encourages individuals to uphold high moral standards and practice civility, even amidst failures.
Ted Koppel emphasizes the importance of maintaining a standard of decency and ethical behavior in life. He acknowledges that while we may fail to live up to these standards at times, the solution is to adjust our actions rather than compromise our moral values. This message encourages a commitment to civility and integrity in our interactions with others.
In practice
Using this quote in a speech about the importance of ethics in the workplace.
Emotions get in the way but they don't pay me to start crying at the loss of 269 lives. They pay me to put some perspective on the situation.
Our society finds truth too strong a medicine to digest undiluted. In its purest form, truth is not a polite tap on the shoulder; it is a howling reproach.
My function is, as objectively and accurately as I can, to present reality to people out there, and doing that as quickly as we do is quite difficult enough, thank you.
Set your sights beyond what you can see. There is true majesty in the concept of an unseen power which can neither be measured nor weighed.
You can almost measure where you are in life by the degree to which you have begun looking back rather than ahead.
People shouldn't expect the mass media to do investigative stories. That job belongs to the 'fringe' media.
However varied you try to make your work, you still bump up against the end of you. You keep knocking into a wall, and the wall is your own skull. But when you adapt somebody's work, it's like a door into somewhere else. It feels like a holiday from myself.
Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.
When I was six or seven years old, growing up in Pittsburgh, I used to take a precious penny of my own and hide it for someone else to find. I was greatly excited at the thought of the first lucky passerby who would receive a gift in this way, regardless of merit, a free gift from the universe. . . . I've been thinking about seeing. There are lots of things to see, unwrapped gifts and free surprises. The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand.
When I was about twelve I used to think I must be a genius, but nobody's noticed. If there is such a thing as a genius, I am one, and if there isn't I don't care.
I relax and cast aside all mental burdens, allowing God to express through me His perfect love, peace, and wisdom.
Long is the night to him who is awake; long is a mile to him who is tired; long is life to the foolish who do not know the true law.
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