Courage consists not in blindly overlooking danger, but in seeing it, and conquering it.
Jean PaulRead
Sorrows gather around great souls as storms do around mountains; but, like them, they break the storm and purify the air of the plain beneath them.
Interpretation
Great individuals experience hardships but emerge stronger, providing clarity and hope to others.
This quote suggests that individuals with great character or significant contributions often face challenges and sorrow, similar to how mountains attract storms. However, just as mountains withstand these storms and subsequently clear the air for those below, great souls also confront their difficulties and, through their resilience, they can inspire and bring relief to others around them.
In practice
In a discussion on overcoming adversity, this quote could highlight the impact of suffering on personal growth.
Courage consists not in blindly overlooking danger, but in seeing it, and conquering it.
Man's feelings are always purest and most glowing in the hour of meeting and of farewell.
A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes anothers.
There are souls in this world which have the gift of finding joy everywhere and of leaving it behind them when they go.
If self-knowledge is the road to virtue, so is virtue still more the road to self-knowledge.
I would rather dwell in the dim fog of superstition than in air rarefied to nothing by the air-pump of unbelief-in which the panting breast expires, vainly and convulsively gasping for breath.
To be kind is more important than to be right. Many times, what people need is not a brilliant mind that speaks but a special heart that listens.
Perhaps our originality manifests itself most strikingly in what we do with that which we did not originate. To discover something wholly new can be a matter of chance, of idle tinkering, or even of the chronic dissatisfaction of the untalented.
A creative person has little power over his own life. He is not free. He is captive and driven by his daimon.
At least I've had to come to that in my life, to realize that this stuff called failure, this stuff, this debris of historical trauma, family trauma, you know, stuff that can kill your spirit, is actually raw material to make things with and to build a bridge. You can use those materials to build a bridge over that which would destroy you.
He is senseless who would match himself against a stronger man; for he is deprived of victory and adds suffering to disgrace.
Perhaps this sounds very simple, but simple things are always the most difficult. In actual life it requires the greatest discipline to be simple, and the acceptance of oneself is the essence of the moral problem and the epitome of a whole outlook upon life.
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