Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy.
Interpretation
Life provides ample time to be courteous and kind to others.
This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson suggests that while life may seem fleeting, there is always adequate time to show respect and kindness to those around us. It emphasizes the importance of courtesy in our interactions and how it enriches our lives and the lives of others, encouraging us to prioritize kindness despite our busy schedules.
In practice
During a speech on community values, this quote can highlight the importance of showing courtesy in our daily interactions.
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?
As I unclutter my life, I free myself to answer the callings of my soul.
My dedication to my music has driven everyone away. I've had girlfriends, but I always end up on my own. I don't particularly like it, but I don't see a way 'round it.
Wouldn't it be terrible if you'd spent all your life doing everything you were supposed to do, didn't drink, didn't smoke, didn't eat things, took lots of exercise, all the things you didn't want to do, and suddenly one day you were run over by a big red bus, and as the wheels were crunching into you you'd say 'Oh my god, I could have got so drunk last night!' That's the way you should live your life, as if tomorrow you'll be run over by a big red bus.
Wake up! If you knew for certain you had a terminal illness--if you had little time left to live--you would waste precious little of it! Well, I'm telling you...you do have a terminal illness: It's called birth. You don't have more than a few years left. No one does! So be happy now, without reason--or you will never be at all.
She makes life over, he realized. She controls life, whereas I just sit on my can and let it happen to me.
After all, life hasn't much to offer except youth, and I suppose for older people, the love of youth in others.
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