The good are better made by ill, As odours crushed are sweeter still.
Interpretation
Adversity can enhance the goodness in people, much like crushed flowers can emit a stronger fragrance.
This quote reflects the idea that challenges and negative experiences can foster growth and resilience in individuals. Just as flowers release a sweeter scent when crushed, people often show greater strength and character when they face difficulties, revealing their true goodness in the process.
In practice
A motivational speech discussing how challenges shape us into better individuals.
Almost all men are over anxious. No sooner do they enter the world than they lose that taste for natural and simple pleasures so remarkable in early life. Every hour do they ask themselves what progress they have made in the pursuit of wealth or honor and on they go as their fathers went before them till weary and sick at heart they look back with a sigh of regret to the golden time of their childhood.
Sweet Memory! wafted by thy gentle gale, Oft up the stream of Time I turn my sail.
Anytime you see a turtle up on top of a fence post, you know he had some help.
Watch yourself with all diligence, lest the enemy steals near and robs you, depriving you of this great treasure, which is inner peace and stillness of soul. The enemy strives to destroy the peace of the soul, because he knows that when the soul is in turmoil it is more easily led to evil. But you must guard your peace.
It is a great piece of skill to know how to guide your luck even while waiting for it.
It take many a year, mon, and maybe some bloodshed must be, but righteousness someday prevail.
I strive to live with passion and not to be desensitised to life. Things matter to me. You’ve got to live like that. Otherwise what’s the point? It’s not possible to please everyone and there is no point in trying to be what other people think you should be. For me, it’s important to be who I am, not just to be different but to be as authentic as I can be.
Unify your attention. Do not listen with your ears, but with your mind. Do not listen with your mind but with your essence.
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