So many gods, so many creeds, so many paths that wind and wind while just the art of being kind is all the sad world needs.
Interpretation
Kindness is the essential virtue needed in a world filled with diversity and complexity.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox's quote emphasizes that amidst the multitude of beliefs, religions, and life paths people follow, the fundamental necessity for humanity is kindness. It suggests that no matter the differences among individuals, a simple act of kindness can bridge gaps and bring compassion to a world that is often sorrowful.
In practice
In a speech about community service, I could use this quote to highlight the importance of kindness.
Sweep up the debris of decaying faith; _x000D_ Sweep down the cobwebs of worn-out out beliefs, _x000D_ And throw your soul wide open to the light of reason and of knowledge. _x000D_ Be not afraid _x000D_ To thrust aside half-truths and grasp the whole.
I am the voice of the voiceless; Through me the dumb shall speak. Till the deaf world's ears be made to hear. The wrongs of the wordless weak. And I am my brothers keeper, And I will fight his fights; And speak the words for beast and bird. Till the world shall set things right.
A weed is but an unloved flower.
'Tis easy enough to be pleasant, When life flows along like a song; But the man worth while is the one who will smile when everything goes dead wrong.
Do you wish the world were happy? Then remember day by day, just to scatter seeds of kindness as you pass along the way. . . .
It is easy to be pleasant when life flows by like a song, but the man worth while is the one who will smile when everything goes dead wrong. For the test of the heart is trouble, and it always comes with years, and the smile that is worth the praises of earth is the smile that shines through the tears.
Tolerance, like any aspect of peace, is forever a work in progress, never completed, and, if we're as intelligent as we like to think we are, never abandoned.
Everything great and intelligent is in the minority
Men are seldom blessed with good fortune and good sense at the same time.
Everybody gets told to write about what they know. The trouble with many of us is that at the earlier stages of life we think we know everything- or to put it more usefully, we are often unaware of the scope and structure of our ignorance.
Man must cease attributing his problems to his environment, and learn again to exercise his will - his personal responsibility in the realm of faith and morals.
The preaching of divines helps to preserve well-inclined men in the course of virtue, but seldom or ever reclaims the vicious.
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