When you tire of living, change itself seems evil, does it not? for then any change at all disturbs the deathlike peace of the life-weary.
Walter M. Miller, Jr.Read
Listen, my dear Cors, why don't you forgive God for allowing pain? If He didn't allow it, human courage, bravery, nobility, and self-sacrifice would all be meaningless things.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that pain is essential for the development of human virtues.
Walter M. Miller, Jr. expresses that suffering and pain are necessary experiences in life that give rise to important qualities such as courage, bravery, nobility, and the capacity for self-sacrifice. Without the presence of pain, these virtues would lack significance and depth, implying that adversity is a catalyst for personal growth and moral strength.
In practice
During a motivational speech to inspire resilience in the face of challenges.
There is no better means of attainment to the spiritual life Than by continually beginning again.
Cheating is a sin, but honest cunning is simply prudence. It is a virtue. To be sure, it has a likeness to roguery, but that cannot be helped. He who has not learned to practice it is a fool.
Upon the first goblet he read this inscription, monkey wine; upon the second, lion wine; upon the third, sheep wine; upon the fourth, swine wine. These four inscriptions expressed the four descending degrees of drunkenness: the first, that which enlivens; the second, that which irritates; the third, that which stupefies; finally the last, that which brutalizes.
Poverty makes you sad as well as wise.
Humanity does not ask us to be happy. It merely asks us to be brilliant on its behalf.
Shun no toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other; yet do not devote yourself to one branch exclusively. Strive to get clear notions about all. Give up no science entirely; for science is but one.
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