Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?
John KeatsRead
It is a flaw In happiness to see beyond our bourn, - It forces us in summer skies to mourn, It spoils the singing of the nightingale.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that looking beyond our limitations can lead to unhappiness and prevent us from enjoying the present.
John Keats reflects on the idea that yearning for something beyond our reach can create dissatisfaction and sorrow in our current state. The imagery of summer skies and the nightingale illustrates how this longing can overshadow the beauty and joy present in our lives, ultimately detracting from our happiness.
Themes
HappinessLongingContentmentNatureBeauty
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about contentment and appreciating the present moment.
More from John Keats
All quotes βAre there not thousands in the world who love their fellows even to the death, who feel the giant agony of the world, and more, like slaves to poor humanity, labor for mortal good?
John KeatsRead
Ask yourself my love whether you are not very cruel to have so entrammelled me, so destroyed my freedom. Will you confess this in the Letter you must write immediately, and do all you can to console me in it β make it rich as a draught of poppies to intoxicate me βwrite the softest words and kiss them that I may at least touch my lips where yours have been. For myself I know not how to express my devotion to so fair a form: I want a brighter word than bright, a fairer word than fair.
John KeatsRead
Faded the flower and all its budded charms,Faded the sight of beauty from my eyes,Faded the shape of beauty from my arms,Faded the voice, warmth, whiteness, paradise!Vanishd unseasonably
John KeatsRead
I think we may class the lawyer in the natural history of monsters.
John KeatsRead
...I leaped headlong into the Sea, and thereby have become more acquainted with the Soundings, the quicksands, and the rocks, than if I had stayed upon the green shore, and piped a silly pipe, and took tea and comfortable advice.
John KeatsRead
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