You may choose your words like a connoisseur, And polish it up with art, But the word that sways, and stirs, and stays, Is the word that comes from the heart.
Interpretation
The most impactful words are those that are genuine and heartfelt, rather than just perfectly crafted.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox emphasizes the importance of authenticity in communication. While one can choose words carefully and enhance them through artistic expression, it is ultimately the sincerity and emotional resonance of words that truly moves and connects with others, leaving a lasting impression.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of honesty in relationships.
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.
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.
'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. . . .
To write it, it took three months; to conceive it three minutes; to collect the data in it all my life.
The anarchist painter is not the one who will create anarchist pictures, but the one who will fight with all his individuality against official conventions.
You don't know how much artists go through to make it look so easy. It's all in the practice.
The first among mankind will always be those who make something imperishable out of a sheet of paper, a canvas, a piece of marble, or a few sounds
Risk is at the heart of jazz. Every note we play is a risk.
Nothing, of course, will ever take the place of the good old fashion of 'liking' a work of art or not liking it; the more improved criticism will not abolish that primitive, that ultimate, test.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.