Go forward with joyful confidence.
George EliotRead
Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.
Interpretation
Our actions define who we are, just as we have the power to shape those actions.
This quote by George Eliot suggests a reciprocal relationship between our actions and our identity. We are shaped by the deeds we perform, which reflect our values and beliefs; simultaneously, we possess the agency to choose and influence those very deeds, thus asserting our character and direction in life.
In practice
During a motivational speech to emphasize the power of personal responsibility.
Go forward with joyful confidence.
You must love your work, and not be always looking over the edge of it, wanting your play to begin. And the other is, you must not be ashamed of your work, and think it would be more honorable to you to be doing something else. You must have a pride in your own work and in learning to do it well.
She thought it was part of the hardship of her life that there was laid upon her the burthen of larger wants than others seemed to feel β that she had to endure this wide hopeless yearning for that something, whatever it was, that was greatest and best on this earth.
Life seems to go on without effort when I am filled with music.
I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.
Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them: they can be injured by us, they can be wounded; they know all our penitence, all our aching sense that their place is empty, all the kisses we bestow on the smallest relic of their presence.
Oh, God β the lives people try to lead. Oh, God β what a world they try to lead them in.
When all other rights are taken away, the right of rebellion is made perfect.
It has been said that the gate of history turns on small hinges, and so do people's lives. The choices we make determine our destiny.
The older I get the more I'm convinced that it's the purpose of politicians and journalists to say the world is very simple, whereas it's the purpose of historians to say, 'No! It's very complicated.' _x000D_ _x000D_ The job of the historian is to help give people a sense of existence in time, without which we are really not fully human.
Caribbean reality resembles the wildest imagination.
To a toad what is beauty? A female with two lovely pop-eyes, a wide mouth, yellow belly, and green spotted back.
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