Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.
HeraclitusRead
Even a soul submerged in sleep _x000D_ is hard at work and helps _x000D_ make something of the world.
Interpretation
Even when we are not actively engaged, our thoughts and subconscious contribute to the world's progress.
This quote by Heraclitus suggests that even when individuals appear inactive or in a state of rest, like sleeping, their mind continues to work and contribute to the greater fabric of existence. It highlights the idea that creativity and progress are often driven by subconscious processes, and every individual has a role in shaping the world, even when they may not be consciously aware of it.
In practice
During a lecture on creativity, one might say this quote to illustrate the importance of subconscious thought.
Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.
Thinking is a sacred disease and sight is deceptive.
Things of which there is sight, hearing, apprehension, these I prefer.
Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.
For when is death not within our selves? And as Heracleitus says: βLiving and dead are the same, and so are awake and asleep, young and old. The former when shifted are the latter, and again the latter when shifted are the former."
Whosoever wishes to know about the world must learn about it in its particular details. Knowledge is not intelligence. In searching for the truth be ready for the unexpected. Change alone is unchanging. The same road goes both up and down. The beginning of a circle is also its end. Not I, but the world says it: all is one. And yet everything comes in season.
The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: 'What good is it?
The real question is not whether life exists after death. The real question is whether you are alive before death.
Every man who attacks my belief, diminishes in some degree my confidence in it, and therefore makes me uneasy; and I am angry with him who makes me uneasy.
Why should I fear death?_x000D_ If I am, then death is not._x000D_ If Death is, then I am not._x000D_ Why should I fear that which can only exist when I do not?_x000D_ Long time men lay oppressed with slavish fear._x000D_ Religious tyranny did domineer._x000D_ At length the mighty one of Greece_x000D_ Began to assent the liberty of man.
Beauty stands In the admiration only of weak minds Led captive.
I have a photograph of myself when I was 2 years of age, and I don't recognize the person in the photograph. She doesn't look anything like me, and I can't find any trace of her in me physically. And yet I remember her very, very well - even her anxiety.
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