Life is too short to waste . . . 'Twill soon be dark; Up! mind thine own aim, and God speed the mark!
Interpretation
Make the most of your time and focus on your personal goals before it's too late.
Ralph Waldo Emerson emphasizes the brevity of life and the importance of purposeful living. He urges individuals to focus on their own aspirations and objectives, suggesting that one should take action and not delay in pursuing what truly matters to them before time runs out.
In practice
In a motivational speech to inspire students to pursue their dreams.
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?
Whimsy doesn't care if you are the driver or the passenger; all that matters is that you are on your way.
Things were rough all over, but it was better that way. That way you could tell the other guy was human too.
When you die of sorrow it's as if you've broken all the bones in your body, bruised yourself all over, cracked your skull. That's sorrow.
I just love asking questions. I love people. It's in my DNA. I'm cursed - and blessed.
Life once conceived, must be protected with the utmost care; abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.
What a good thing, for instance, it was that one princess should sleep for a hundred years! Was she not saved from all the plague of young men who were not worthy of her? And did not she come awake exactly at the right moment when the right prince kissed her? For my part, I cannot help wishing a good many girls would sleep till just the same fate overtook them. It would be happier for them, and more agreeable to their friends.
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