Difficulty, my brethren, is the nurse of greatness - a harsh nurse, who roughly rocks her foster children into strength and athletic proportion.
Interpretation
Challenges and difficulties are essential for personal growth and achieving greatness.
In this quote, Bryant emphasizes that adversity is a crucial factor in fostering greatness. The metaphor of difficulty as a 'nurse' suggests that while the road to strength and success may be harsh and demanding, it ultimately shapes individuals into their strongest selves, akin to how a tough yet nurturing caregiver develops resilience and skill in their charges.
In practice
In a motivational speech to inspire students to embrace challenges.
Come when the rains_x000D_ _x000D_ Have glazed the snow and clothed the trees with ice,_x000D_ _x000D_ While the slant sun of February pours_x000D_ _x000D_ Into the bowers a flood of light. Approach!_x000D_ _x000D_ The incrusted surface shall upbear thy steps_x000D_ _x000D_ And the broad arching portals of the grove_x000D_ _x000D_ Welcome thy entering.
Glorious are the woods in their latest gold and crimson,_x000D_ Yet our full-leaved willows are in the freshest green._x000D_ Such a kindly autumn, so mercifully dealing_x000D_ With the growths of summer, I never yet have seen.
Look on this beautiful world, and read the truth in her fair page.
When April winds_x000D_ Grew soft, the maple burst into a flush_x000D_ Of scarlet flowers. The tulip tree, high up,_x000D_ Opened in airs of June her multitude_x000D_ Of golden chalices to humming-birds_x000D_ And silken-wing'd insects of the sky.
There is no glory in star or blossom till looked upon by a loving eye; There is no fragrance in April breezes till breathed with joy as they wander by.
The sweet calm sunshine of October, now_x000D_ _x000D_ Warms the low spot; upon its grassy mold_x000D_ _x000D_ The pur0ple oak-leaf falls; the birchen bough_x000D_ _x000D_ drops its bright spoil like arrow-heads of gold.
50 years: here's a time when you have to separate yourself from what other people expect of you, and do what you love. Because if you find yourself 50 years old and you aren't doing what you love, then what's the point?
Fears, even the most basic ones, can totally destroy our ambitions. Fear, if left unchecked, can destroy our lives. Fear is one of the many enemies lurking inside us.
A few heart-whole, sincere, and energetic men and women can do more in a year than a mob in a century.
I ain't Martin Luther King. I don't need a dream. I have a plan.
Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.
Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.
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