It is much more valuable to look for the strength in others. You can gain nothing by criticizing their imperfections.
Daisaku IkedaRead
While conservatism and self-protection might be likened to winter, night, and death, the spirit of pioneering and attempting to realize ideals evokes images of spring, morning, and birth.
Interpretation
The quote contrasts conservatism with the spirit of pioneering, emphasizing the importance of embracing new ideas and ideals.
Daisaku Ikeda uses the metaphor of seasons and times of day to illustrate the contrast between conservatism—representing stagnation and protectionism—and the dynamic spirit of pioneering that seeks to realize new ideals. Just as spring symbolizes renewal and birth, the spirit of innovation and progress is essential for personal and societal growth, urging us to step out of the shadows of fear and embrace the light of opportunity.
In practice
A motivational speech about embracing new opportunities could incorporate this quote.
It is much more valuable to look for the strength in others. You can gain nothing by criticizing their imperfections.
There’s no need for us to be held back by the past or how things have been so far. The important thing is what seeds we are sowing now for the future.
True love should be transformative; a process that amplifies our capacity to cherish not just one person but all people. It can make us stronger, lift us higher and deepen us as individuals. Only to the extent that we polish ourselves now can we hope to develop wonderful bonds of the heart in the future.
Let us give something to each person we meet: joy, courage, hope, assurance, or philosophy, wisdom, a vision for the future. Let us always give something.
Just as a diamond can only be polished by another diamond, it is only through genuine, all-out engagement with others that people can polish their character, and help each other to reach greater heights.
Creating harmony amidst diversity is a fundamental issue of the twenty-first century. While celebrating the unique characteristics of different peoples and cultures, we have to create solidarity on the level of our common humanity, our common life. Without such solidarity, there will be no future for the human race. Diversity should not beget conflict in the world, but richness.
The world moves, and ideas that were once good are not always good.
A working woman could save a few shillings a week, and then every five weeks she'd come in and we'd cut her hair. She could shampoo it under the shower, swing it and dry it off or just let it dry by itself. It changed the lives of many young girls who'd never had the opportunity to be styled like that before.
One mushroom cloud would change history. My deepest fear is that this is exactly what they [Al Qaeda] intend.
The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.
Through protest - especially in the 1950s and '60s - we, as a people, touched greatness. Protest, not immigration, was our way into the American Dream. Freedom in this country had always been relative to race, and it was black protest that made freedom an absolute.
The only thing I fear more than change is no change. The business of being static makes me nuts.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.