Some dreams we have are nothing else but dreams, Unnatural and full of contradictions; Yet others of our most romantic schemes, Are something more than fictions.
Thomas HoodRead
I remember, I remember The fir-trees dark and high; I used to think their slender tops Were close against the sky; It was a childish ignorance, But now 't is little joy To know I'm farther off from heaven Than when I was a boy.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the loss of innocence and the realization that adult understanding can bring sorrow instead of joy.
In this quote, Thomas Hood reminisces about his childhood perception of the fir-trees reaching towards the sky, symbolizing a time of innocence and wonder. As he grows older, he recognizes that with maturity comes a painful awareness of life's limitations and the distance from the ideals of heaven and joy, contrasting the naive joy of childhood with the more complex emotions of adulthood.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of maintaining a sense of wonder, one could use this quote to illustrate the contrast between childhood and adulthood.
Some dreams we have are nothing else but dreams, Unnatural and full of contradictions; Yet others of our most romantic schemes, Are something more than fictions.
Tis like the birthday of the world,_x000D_ _x000D_ When earth was born in bloom;_x000D_ _x000D_ The light is made of many dyes,_x000D_ _x000D_ The air is all perfume:_x000D_ _x000D_ There's crimson buds, and white and blue,_x000D_ _x000D_ The very rainbow showers_x000D_ _x000D_ Have turned to blossoms where they fell,_x000D_ _x000D_ And sown the earth with flowers.
Some minds improve by travel, others, rather, resemble copper wire, or brass, which get the narrower by going farther.
It was a childish ignorance, But now 'tis little joy To know I'm further off from heaven Than when I was a boy.
The Autumn is old; The sere leaves are flying; He hath gather'd up gold, And now he is dying;- Old age, begin sighing!
I resolved that, like the sun, as long as my day lasted, I would look on the bright side of everything.
It is a mysterious thing, the loss of faith—as mysterious as faith itself.
Two months ago I had a nice apartment in Chicago. I had a good job. I had a son. When something happened to the Negroes in the South I said, `That's their business, not mine.' Now I know how wrong. I was. The murder of my son has shown me that what happens to any of us, anywhere in the world, had better be the business of us all.
I begin each day with holy Mass, receiving Jesus hidden under the appearance of a simple piece of bread. Then I go out into the streets and I find the same Jesus hidden in the dying destitute, the AIDS patients, the lepers, the abandoned children, the hungry, and the homeless. It's the same Jesus.
Evil is tolerable if purged of coarseness.
Let him go abroad to a distant country; let him go to some place where he is not known. Don't let him go to the devil, where he is known.
The moment a man claims a right to control the will of a fellow being by physical force, he is at heart a slaveholder.
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