Truth is one forever absolute, but opinion is truth filtered through the moods, the blood, the disposition of the spectator.
Wendell PhillipsRead
Example acquires tenfold authority when it speaks from the grave.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that actions or examples have greater impact and credibility when they are enduring over time, even beyond one's life.
Wendell Phillips highlights the profound influence of examples set by individuals that continue to resonate and teach long after they have passed away. The essence of their actions transcends time, conveying lessons and authority that can inspire and guide others, illustrating the lasting power of one's legacy.
In practice
In a motivational speech about leadership, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of leading by example.
Truth is one forever absolute, but opinion is truth filtered through the moods, the blood, the disposition of the spectator.
Seldom ever was any knowledge given to keep, but to impart; the grace of this rich jewel is lost in concealment.
If you want to be an orator, first get your great cause.
Debt is the fatal disease of republics, the first thing and the mightiest to undermine governments and corrupt the people.
Organize, and stand together. Claim something together, and at once; let the nation hear a united demand from the laboring voice, and then, when you have got that, go on after another; but get something.
Write on my gravestone: 'Infidel, Traitor.', infidel to every church that compromises with wrong; traitor to every government that oppresses the people.
It is not the cares of today, but the cares of tomorrow, that weigh a man down. For the needs of today we have corresponding strength given. For the morrow we are told to trust. It is not ours yet. It is when tomorrow's burden is added to the burden of today that the weight is more than a man can bear.
[T]he more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer . . . [taking] away from before their eyes the greatest of all inducements to industry, frugality, and sobriety, by giving them a dependence of somewhat else than a careful accumulation during youth and health for support in age and sickness.
It is misleading to imagine that we are developed in spite of our circumstances, for we are developed because of them. It is mastery in circumstances that is needed, not mastery over them.
To boast of a performance which I cannot beat is merely stupid vanity. And if I can beat it that means there is nothing special about it. What has passed is already finished with. What I find more interesting is what is still to come.
The man who walks with wise men becomes wise himself.
Silence is a source of great strength.
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