The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
Thomas CarlyleRead
Pin your faith to no ones sleeves, haven't you two eyes of your own.
Interpretation
Rely on your own judgment rather than blindly following others.
This quote emphasizes the importance of using your own discernment and critical thinking instead of placing your trust entirely in someone else's opinions or actions. It serves as a reminder that each individual has the capacity to see and judge things for themselves, encouraging personal responsibility and independence in decision-making.
In practice
In a motivational speech about self-reliance and decision-making.
The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
Thirty millions, mostly fools.
There is a great discovery still to be made in literature, that of paying literary men by the quantity they do not write.
For the superior morality, of which we hear so much, we too would desire to be thankful: at the same time, it were but blindness to deny that this superior morality is properly rather an inferior criminality, produced not by greater love of Virtue, but by greater perfection of Police; and of that far subtler and stronger Police, called Public Opinion.
Enjoying things which are pleasant; that is not the evil; it is the reducing of our moral self to slavery by them that is.
Clean undeniable right, clear undeniable might: either of these once ascertained puts an end to battle. All battle is a confused experiment to ascertain one and both of these.
Doing an injury puts you below your enemy; revenging one make you but even with him; forgiving it sets you above him.
Forgive but do not forget, or you will be hurt again. Forgiving changes the perspectives. Forgetting loses the lesson.
God intends no man to live in this world without working, but it seems to me no less evident that He intends every man to be happy in his work.
Sexuality is one of the ways that we become enlightened, actually, because it leads us to self-knowledge.
See if you can catch yourself complaining in either speech or thought, about a situation you find yourself in, what other people do or say, your surroundings, your life situation, even the weather. To complain is always nonacceptance of what is. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself a victim. Leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness.
We should not feel embarrassed by our difficulties, only by our failure to grow anything beautiful from them.
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