Criticism should not be querulous and wasting, all knife and root-puller, but guiding, instructive, inspiring, a south wind, not an east wind.
Interpretation
Constructive criticism should be positive and helpful rather than negative and destructive.
Ralph Waldo Emerson emphasizes the importance of delivering criticism in a constructive manner. Instead of being harsh or unproductive, criticism should aim to guide and inspire individuals towards growth, much like a gentle south wind that nurtures rather than an east wind that brings harshness.
In practice
In a team meeting when discussing performance feedback.
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
The world belongs to the energetic.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
Those who are serious in ridiculous matters will be ridiculous in serious matters.
Great heroes need great sorrows and burdens, or half their greatness goes unnoticed. It is all part of the fairy tale.
It's better to do your purpose imperfectly than to do someone else's purpose perfectly.
Who shall enumerate the many ways in which that costly piece of fixed capital, a human being , may be employed! More of him is wanted everywhere! Hunt, then, for some situation in which your humanity may be used.
Live one day at a time emphasizing ethics rather than rules.
'It only put me in Gryffindor,' said Harry in a defeated voice, 'because I asked not to go in Slytherin...' 'Exactly' said Dumbledore, beaming once more. 'Which makes you very different from Tom Riddle. It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.'
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