Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed.
Interpretation
Life is often filled with struggles and unfulfilled expectations.
This quote by Samuel Johnson highlights the inherent nature of human existence, suggesting that from the moment we are born, we encounter challenges and dissatisfaction. It reflects a pessimistic view of life, where the initial cries of an infant symbolize suffering, the complaints of adults mirror ongoing struggles, and the eventual disappointment at the end of life underscores the inevitability of unmet desires and aspirations.
In practice
In a thought-provoking lecture on the human condition, this quote could serve to transition into a discussion about life's challenges.
To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.
He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.
To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of the weary pilgrimage.
Fly-fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.
When any anxiety or gloom of the mind takes hold of you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaining; but exert yourselves to hide it, and by endeavoring to hide it you drive it away.
A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other.
The things we want are transformative, and we donβt know or only think we know what is on the other side of that transformation Never to get lost is not to live.
Post-modernism has cut off the present from all futures. The daily media add to this by cutting off the past. Which means that critical opinion is often orphaned in the present.
My thoughts are starts I can't fathom into constellations.
One of the basic troubles with radio and television news is that both instruments have grown up as an incompatible combination of show business, advertising and news. Each of the three is a rather bizarre and demanding profession. And when you get all three under one roof, the dust never settles.
Pray without ceasing on behalf of other men...For cannot he that falls rise again?
Emotion only lasts in our bodies for about 90 seconds. After that, the physical reaction dissipates, UNLESS our cognitive brain kicks in and starts connecting our anger with past events.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.