I always thought I was Jeanne d'Arc and Bonaparte. How little one knows oneself.
Charles De GaulleRead
Don't ask me who's influenced me. A lion is made up of the lambs he's digested, and I've been reading all my life.
Interpretation
Influence comes from many sources, often unnoticed, and shapes who we become.
This quote highlights that our identities and beliefs are constructed from various influences we encounter throughout our lives, much like a lion is formed from the lambs it has consumed. It emphasizes the importance of lifelong learning and the diverse sources of inspiration that shape our perspectives, suggesting that acknowledging these influences can enhance our understanding of ourselves.
In practice
In a motivational speech about personal growth.
I always thought I was Jeanne d'Arc and Bonaparte. How little one knows oneself.
Today we are crushed by the sheer weight of the mechanized forces hurled against us, but we can still look to the future in which even greater mechanized forces will bring us victory. Therein lies the destiny of the world.
The perfection preached in the gospels never yet built an empire. Every man of action has a strong dose of egotism, pride, hardness, and cunning.
One must wait until the evening to see how splendid the day was; one cannot judge life until death.
Soyons fermes, purs et fidèles ; au bout de nos peines, il y a la plus grande gloire du monde, celle des hommes qui n'ont pas cédé. [Let us be firm, pure and faithful; at the end of our sorrow, there is the greatest glory of the world, that of the men who did not give in.]
A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless.
I find as long as I acknowledge the truth of something, then that's it. I know what it is and then I can operate. But if I overestimate the downside of something or the challenge of something and I get too obsessed about the difficulty of it, then I don't leave enough room to be open to the upside, the possibility.
Do a few things at mastery versus many things at mediocrity.
Time passes unhindered. When we make mistakes, we cannot turn the clock back and try again. All we can do is use the present well.
Habits of thinking need not be forever. One of the most significant findings in psychology in the last twenty years is that individuals choose the way they think.
Being young and trying to catch a glimpse of the depths, of the true self, of the soul, or whatever human beings have called it over the centuries, we often find ourselves surrounded by bossy, hectoring voices trying to short-circuit our personal experience by super-imposing their own disappointments. Much of this bossiness masquerades as an education.
Of all tools, an observatory is the most sublime. . . . What is so good in a college as an observatory? The sublime attaches to the door and to the first stair you ascent, that this is the road to the stars.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.