How many precious things do we not already possess which others have not - have hardly an idea of! Let us enjoy these, then, and bless God that we are permitted to enjoy them, rather than importune His goodness with vain longings for more.
Interpretation
We often overlook the valuable things we already have in pursuit of more.
In this quote, Jane Welsh Carlyle reflects on the idea that we possess many precious things in our lives that we take for granted while longing for additional blessings. Instead of constantly yearning for more, she encourages us to appreciate and cherish what we already have, recognizing these gifts as blessings rather than focusing on unfulfilled desires.
In practice
In a motivational speech about finding joy in everyday life.
Does not a man physically tremble under the mere look of a wild beast or fellow-man that is stronger than himself? Does not a woman redden all over when she feels her lover's eyes on her? How then should one doubt the mysterious power of one individual over another?
The surest way to get a thing in this life is to be prepared for doing without it, to the exclusion even of hope.
I declare I would rather be a kitten and cry, 'Mew!' than live as I see many of my female acquaintances do, tearing each other's characters to pieces, and wearing out their lives in vanity and vexation of spirit.
One feels as if it could never, never be less. And yet all griefs, when there is no bitterness in them, are soothed down by time.
But what are friends? What is a husband, even, compared with one's Mother? Of her love, one is always so sure! It is the only love that nothing - not even misconduct on our part - can take away from us.
Never does one feel oneself so utterly helpless as in trying to speak comfort for great bereavement.
A few years ago I met an old professor at the University of Notre Dame. Looking back on his long life of teaching, he said with a funny wrinkle in his eyes: I have always been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted, until I slowly discovered that my interruptions were my work.
We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.
As negative thoughts produce negative actions, so positive thoughts produce positive actions.
In part because individual judgement is not accurate enough or consistent enough, cognitive diversity is essential to good decision making.
It must be wonderful to be seventeen, and to know everything.
Precepts or maxims are of great weight; and a few useful ones on hand do more to produce a happy life than the volumes we can't find.
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