As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, / I must not look to have; but, in their stead, / Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath, / Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not" (5.3.25-28).
William ShakespeareRead
For man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the unpredictable and frivolous nature of humanity.
William Shakespeare's observation highlights the whimsical and often irrational behavior of humans. By stating that 'man is a giddy thing,' he suggests that our actions can sometimes be frivolous or driven by fleeting emotions, leading to complex conclusions about our nature and existence.
In practice
In a discussion about the unpredictability of life, I quoted Shakespeare: 'For man is a giddy thing.'
As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, / I must not look to have; but, in their stead, / Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath, / Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not" (5.3.25-28).
Love bears it out even to the edge of doom.
Good company, good wine, good welcome, can make good people.
Absence doth sharpen love, presence strengthens it; the one brings fuel, the other blows it till it burns clear.
Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying!
Give it an understanding, but no tongue.
Too often, we fall into the trap of thinking 'equal' means 'the same' and that we achieve equality by treating everyone identically.
What of the old serpent who cannot shed his skin, and calls all others naked and shameless?
The greatest need of my people is my own holiness.
Delusion means mortality. And awareness means Buddhahood.
Our sadness wonβt be of the searing kind but more like a blend of joy and melancholy: joy at the perfection we see before us, melancholy at an awareness of how seldom we are sufficiently blessed to encounter anything of its kind. The flawless object throws into perspective the mediocrity that surrounds it. We are reminded of the way we would wish things always to be and of how incomplete our lives remain.
There is only one solution if old age is not to be an absurd parody of our former life, and that is to go on pursuing ends that give our existence a meaning.
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