How vainly men themselves amaze, / To win the palm, the oak, or bays; / And their incessant labours see / Crowned from some single herb or tree.
Andrew MarvellRead
Meanwhile the mind, from pleasure less, Withdraws into its happiness; The mind, that ocean where each kind Does straight its own resemblance find; Yet it creates, transcending these, Far other worlds, and other seas; Annihilating all that's made To a green thought in a green glade ... Such was that happy garden-state.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the mind's ability to create happiness and transcend limitations, akin to finding joy in nature.
Andrew Marvell's quote explores the relationship between the mind and happiness, suggesting that while the mind may retreat from pleasure, it also possesses the unique ability to create its own happiness and imagine new realms. The metaphor of the mind as an ocean emphasizes its vastness and potential for creating beauty and joy, even in a state of withdrawal, ultimately portraying a serene 'garden-state' of happiness found within the imagination.
In practice
This quote can be used to inspire a discussion on mental wellness during a mindfulness workshop.
How vainly men themselves amaze, / To win the palm, the oak, or bays; / And their incessant labours see / Crowned from some single herb or tree.
How could such sweet and wholesome hours be reckoned, but in herbs and flowers?
Now therefore, while the youthful hue Sits on thy skin like morning dew, And while thy willing soul transpires At every pore with instant fires Now let us sport us while we may, And now, like amorous birds of prey, Rather at once our time devour Than languish in his slow-chapped power. Let us roll our strength and all Our sweetness up into one ball And tear our pleasures with rough strife Through the iron gates of life: Thus, while we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.
Annihilating all that's made, To a green thought in a green shade.
Self-preservation, nature's first great law, all the creatures, except man, doth awe.
Like the vain curlings of the watery maze,_x000D_ Which in smooth streams a sinking weight does raise,_x000D_ So Man, declining always, disappears_x000D_ In the weak circles of increasing years;_x000D_ And his short tumults of themselves compose,_x000D_ While flowing Time above his head does close.
When the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.
If space is infinite, we may be at any point in space. If time is infinite, we may be at any point in time.
If I knew of something that could serve my nation but would ruin another, I would not propose it to my prince, for I am first a man and only then a Frenchman... because I am necessarily a man, and only accidentally am I French.
All humans are frightened of their own solitude. But only in solitude can we learn to know ourselves, learn to handle our own eternal aloneness.
But yet I'll make assurance double sure, and take a bond of fate: thou shalt not live.
The actual life of a thought lasts only until it reaches the point of speech...As soon as our thinking has found words it ceases to be sincere...When it begins to exist in others it ceases to live in us, just as the child severs itself from its mother when it enters into its own existence.
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