Life is short but there is always time for courtesy.
Interpretation
Life may be brief, but we should prioritize being courteous towards others.
This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson emphasizes the importance of courtesy in our daily lives, despite the fleeting nature of time. It suggests that regardless of how short life may be, we should always take a moment to show kindness and respect to others, as these gestures can significantly impact their lives and our relationships.
In practice
In a speech about personal values, one might use this quote to highlight the importance of kindness.
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
The world belongs to the energetic.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
Our time here is magic! It's the only space you have to realize whatever it is that is beautiful, whatever is true, whatever is great, whatever is potential, whatever is rare, whatever is unique, in. It's the only space.
Memory was supposed to fill the time, but it made time a hole to be filled. Each second was two hundred yards, to be walked, crawled. You couldn't see the next hour, it was so far in the distance. Tomorrow was over the horizon, and would take an entire day to reach.
You're only here for a short visit. Don't hurry, don't worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.
From the time an Aiel boy becomes a man he will not sing anything but battle chants, or their dirge for the slain. I have heard them singing over their dead, and over those they have killed. That song is one to make the stones weep.
Life is short, break the rules.
Sweep away the clutter of things that complicate our lives.
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