Man can be stimulated by hope or driven by fear, but the hope and the fear must be vivid and immediate if they are to be effective without producing weariness.
Interpretation
Hope and fear can motivate us, but they must be strong and relevant to keep us engaged.
This quote by Bertrand Russell highlights the dual forces of hope and fear in motivating human behavior. For motivation to be effective, these emotions need to be vivid and immediate, allowing individuals to harness them positively without becoming weary or overwhelmed. It suggests that our emotional responses can drive us towards actions, but they require clarity and urgency to be truly impactful.
In practice
In a motivational speech about achieving goals, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of having clear and immediate aspirations.
St. Paul introduced an entirely novel view of marriage, that it existed primarily to prevent the sin of fornication. It is just as if one were to maintain that the sole reason for baking bread is to prevent people from stealing cake.
Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.
Of these austerer virtues the love of truth is the chief, and in mathematics, more than elsewhere, the love of truth may find encouragement for waning faith. Every great study is not only an end in itself, but also a means of creating and sustaining a lofty habit of mind; and this purpose should be kept always in view throughout the teaching and learning of mathematics.
At all times, except when a monarch could enforce his will, war has been facilitated by the fact that vigorous males, confident of victory, enjoyed it, while their females admired them for their prowess.
Moreover, the attitude that one ought to believe such and such a proposition, independently of the question whether there is evidence in its favor, is an attitude which produces hostility to evidence and causes us to close our minds to every fact that does not suit our prejudices.
Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.
I'm actively working hard on learning to appreciate yourself no matter what. If what someone else says can easily derail you, it means your sense of self isn't that firmly established in the first place. It's an inside job. You're beautiful and worthy and totally unique. People insult each other based on their own insecurities - even though it may feel personal, it really never is. Really. Seriously.
Fresh from a costume fitting, where I had been posing in front of the mirror assuming what I thought was a strong position - arms folded, butch-looking...you know - I met with the woman in charge of Holloway police station. She gave me the most invaluable advice: never let them see you cry, and never cross your arms. When I asked why, she said 'because it is a defensive action and therefore weak.
We have nothing to lose by trusting the infinite power of the Self, except the bondage of our own ignorance.
It is better to be an outcast, a stranger in oneβs own country, than an outcast from oneβs self. It is better to see what is about to befall us and to resist than to retreat into the fantasies embraced by a nation of the blind.
The Element is about discovering your self, and you can't do this if you're trapped in a compulsion to conform. You can't be yourself in a swarm.
A man is not called wise because he talks and talks again; but if he is peaceful, loving and fearless then he is in truth called wise.
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