I have always been of the mind that in a democracy manners are the only effective weapons against the bowie-knife.
James Russell LowellRead
Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or the handle.
Interpretation
Mishaps can either harm us or help us, depending on how we choose to handle them.
This quote illustrates the dual nature of difficulties and misfortunes in life. It suggests that our perception and response to challenges determine whether they will be beneficial or detrimental; we can choose to learn from them and use them for growth, or allow them to harm us.
In practice
During a motivational speech about overcoming adversity.
I have always been of the mind that in a democracy manners are the only effective weapons against the bowie-knife.
The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions.
Not failure, but low aim, is crime.
Good luck is the willing handmaid of upright, energetic character, and conscientious observance of duty.
Puritanism, believing itself quick with the seed of religious liberty, laid, without knowing it, the egg of democracy.
Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.
There are many truths of which the full meaning cannot be realized until personal experience has brought it home.
Example acquires tenfold authority when it speaks from the grave.
Truth is generally the best vindication against slander
A man must be prepared not only to be a martyr, but to be a fool. It is absurd to say that a man is ready to toil and die for his convictions if he is not even ready to wear a wreathe around his head for them.
To hope till hope creates_x000D_ _x000D_ From its own wreck the thing it contemplates.
On an important decision one rarely has 100% of the information needed for a good decision no matter how much one spends or how long one waits. And, if one waits too long, he has a different problem and has to start all over. This is the terrible dilemma of the hesitant decision maker.
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