Men are but children of a larger growth, Our appetites as apt to change as theirs, And full as craving too, and full as vain.
John DrydenRead
An horrible stillness first invades our ear, And in that silence we the tempest fear.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the anxiety and fear that arise from silence before chaos ensues.
In this quote, John Dryden captures the intense feeling of dread that accompanies a sudden silence or stillness, indicating an impending storm or conflict. This stillness often serves as a precursor to turmoil, highlighting the human tendency to anticipate danger and chaos in moments of quietude.
In practice
This quote can be used during a speech about overcoming fear in uncertain times.
Men are but children of a larger growth, Our appetites as apt to change as theirs, And full as craving too, and full as vain.
Of no distemper, of no blast he died, _x000D_ But fell like autumn fruit that mellow'd long: _x000D_ Even wonder'd at, because he dropp'd no sooner. _x000D_ Fate seem'd to wind him up for fourscore years; _x000D_ Yet freshly ran he on ten winters more; _x000D_ Till like a clock worn out with eating time, _x000D_ The wheels of weary life at last stood still.
Or hast thou known the world so long in vain?
Shame on the body for breaking down while the spirit perseveres.
Love reckons hours for months, and days for years; and every little absence is an age.
And write whatever Time shall bring to pass_x000D_ _x000D_ With pens of adamant on plates of brass.
The Gospel itself is angular. It always has been. It always conflicts. It always challenges every generation. It challenges different generations in different ways.
As an American man of the 1990s writing about a Japanese woman of the 1930s, I needed to cross three cultural divides - man to woman, American to Japanese, and present to past.
The fear of punishment, the desire of reward, the sense of duty, are all useful arguments, in their way, to persuade people to holiness. But they are all weak and powerless, until a person loves Christ.
To know that nothing happens in God's world apart from God's will may frighten the godless, but it stabilizes the saints.
Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
All this creative power of the mind amounts to no more than the faculty of compounding, transposing, augmenting, or diminishing the materials afforded us the by senses and experience.
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