May I not forget that poverty and riches are of the spirit. Though the world knows me not, may my thoughts and actions be such as will keep me friendly with myself.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the idea that true wealth is found within one's spirit rather than in external circumstances.
Max Ehrmann's quote highlights that both poverty and riches are ultimately determined by one's inner state of mind and spirit. It suggests that external recognition may not be important, but maintaining a sense of friendship and integrity with oneself is crucial for a fulfilling life.
In practice
In a speech about personal development, one might quote this to inspire self-reflection and inner peace.
Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism. _x000D_ _x000D_ Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.
And whatever your labors and aspirations, _x000D_ in the noisy confusion of life, _x000D_ keep peace in your soul. _x000D_ With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
Wishing you happiness always! Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. . . . . Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
Go Placidly, Amid the noise and Haste & Remember what peace there may be in silence.
You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
The freedom now desired by many is not freedom to do and dare but freedom from care and worry.
Economics make homeopath and alternative healers look empirical and scientific.
Never in all their history have men been able truly to conceive of the world as one: a single sphere, a globe, having the qualities of a globe, a round earth in which all the directions eventually meet, in which there is no center because every point, or none, is center - an equal earth which all men occupy as equals. The airman's earth, if free men make it, will be truly round: a globe in practice, not in theory.
Qu'ils mangent de la brioche. Let them eat cake. On being told that her people had no bread. Attributed to Marie-Antoinette, but remark is much older. Rousseau refers in his Confessions, 1740, to a similar remark, as a well-known saying. Others attribute the remark to the wife of Louis XIV.
If someone puts up the argument that King Louis gave the Romagna to Pope Alexander, and the kingdom of Naples to Spain, in order to avoid a war, I would answer as I did before: that you should never let things get out of hand in order to avoid war. You don't avoid such a war, you merely postpone it, to your own disadvantage.
Let us live in as small a circle as we will, we are either debtors or creditors before we have had time to look around.
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