Life is a journey that must be traveled no matter how bad the roads and accommodations.
Oliver GoldsmithRead
Honour sinks where commerce long prevails.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that values such as honor diminish in a society focused on commercial gain.
Oliver Goldsmith's quote highlights the idea that excessive focus on commerce and material wealth can lead to the erosion of moral values and honor. In a society where commercial interests dominate, ethical considerations often take a backseat, leading to a culture where integrity and honor suffer and are undervalued. The quote suggests a cautionary perspective on prioritizing financial gain over personal and communal virtues.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of ethics in business.
Life is a journey that must be traveled no matter how bad the roads and accommodations.
A mind too vigorous and active, serves only to consume the body to which it is joined.
Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall.
Whatever the skill of any country may be in the sciences, it is from its excellence in polite learning alone that it must expect a character from posterity.
Life at the greatest and best is but a froward child, that must be humored and coaxed a little till it falls asleep, and then all the care is over.
Hope, like the gleaming taper's light,_x000D_ _x000D_ Adorns and cheers our way;_x000D_ _x000D_ And still, as darker grows the night,_x000D_ _x000D_ Emits a brighter ray.
I looked at it [revolver] as if it reminded me of a crime I had committed with an irrepressible smile such as rises sometimes to people’s lips in the face of great catastrophes which are beyond their grasp, the smile that comes at times on certain women’s faces while they are saying they regret the harm they have done. It is the smile of nature quietly and proudly asserting its natural right to kill.
Every man lives in two realms: the internal and the external. The internal is that realm of spiritual ends expressed in art, literature, morals, and religion. The external is that complex of devices, techniques, mechanisms, and instrumentalities by means of which we live.
They are more human and more brotherly towards one another, it seems to me, than we are. But perhaps that is merely because they feel themselves to be more unfortunate than us.
I lapsed into my pathetic cut-off period. Often with humans, both good and bad, my senses simply shut off, they get tired, I give up. I am polite. I nod. I pretend to understand because I don’t want anybody to be hurt. That is the one weakness that has lead me into the most trouble. Trying to be kind to others I often get my soul shredded into a kind of spiritual pasta. No matter. My brain shuts off. I listen. I respond. And they are too dumb to know that I am not there.
When air conditioning, escalators, and advertising appeared, shopping expanded its scale, but also limited its spontaneity. And it became much more predictable, almost scientific. What had once been the most surprising became the most manipulated.
People inside of belonging systems are very threatened by those who are not within that group. They are threatened by anyone who has found their citizenship in places they cannot control.
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