Moderation in all things, especially moderation.
Interpretation
Balance is key, even in the pursuit of balance itself.
This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson emphasizes the importance of moderation not just in our actions and choices, but also in the approach to moderation itself. It suggests that while striving for a balanced life is vital, becoming overly rigid or obsessive about being moderate can lead to imbalance, making flexibility and open-mindedness essential in our pursuits.
In practice
In a discussion about healthy eating habits, one might use this quote to stress the importance of not being too restrictive.
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
The world belongs to the energetic.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
You can't just hoard your ideas inside the ivory tower. You have to get them out into the world.
To agree without understanding is inane. To disagree without understanding is impudent.
George MacDonald gives me renewed strength during times of trouble--times when I have seen people tempted to deny God--when he says, "The Son of God suffered unto death, not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like his.
The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell.
When we harbor negative emotions toward others or toward ourselves, or when we intentionally create pain for others, we poison our own physical and spiritual systems. By far the strongest poison to the human spirit is the inability to forgive oneself or another person. It disables a person's emotional resources. The challenge...is to refine our capacity to love others as well as ourselves and to develop the power of forgiveness.
If we are strong, our strength will speak for itself. If we are weak, words will be of no help.
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