When people will not weed their own minds, they are apt to be overrun by nettles.
Horace WalpoleRead
The best philosophy is to do one's duties, take the world as it comes, submit respectfully to one's lot; bless the goodness that has given us so much happiness with it.
Interpretation
Embrace your responsibilities and accept life as it unfolds, while being grateful for the happiness you receive.
This quote emphasizes the importance of fulfilling one's responsibilities in life and accepting circumstances with grace. It suggests that rather than fighting against what we cannot change, we should recognize the goodness in our situation and express gratitude for the happiness that comes from it, ultimately promoting a philosophy of contentment and duty.
In practice
During a speech on personal growth, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of responsibility and gratitude.
When people will not weed their own minds, they are apt to be overrun by nettles.
Life is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel.
We often repent of our first thoughts, and scarce ever of our second.
Who has begun has half done. Have the courage to be wise. Begin!
By deafness one gains in one respect more than one loses; one misses more nonsense than sense.
Men are often capable of greater things than they perform - They are sent into the world with bills of credit, and seldom draw to their full extent.
Killing a man in defense of an idea is not defending an idea; it is killing a man.
Return to Shaoshan I regret the passing, the dying, of the vague dream: my native orchards thirty-two years ago. Yet red banners roused the serfs, who seized three-pronged lances when the warlords raised whips in their black hands. We were brave and sacrifice was easy and we asked the sun, the moon, to alter the sky. Now I see a thousand waves of beans and rice and am happy. In the evening haze heroes are coming home.
Speculative markets have always been vulnerable to illusion. But seeing the folly in markets provides no clear advantage in forecasting outcomes, because changes in the force of the illusion are difficult to predict.
Viva Las Vegas with your neon flashin' and your one arm bandits crashin' all those hopes down the drain. Viva Las Vegas turnin' day into nighttime, turnin night into daytime. If you see it once, you'll never be the same again.
Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.
Among the basic freedoms to which men aspire that their lives might be full and uncramped, freedom from fear stands out as both a means and an end. A people who would build a nation in which strong, democratic institutions are firmly established as a guarantee against state-induced power must first learn to liberate their own minds from apathy and fear.
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