It is the nature of men having escaped one extreme, which by force they were constrained long to endure, to run headlong into the other extreme, forgetting that virtue doth always consist in the mean.
Interpretation
People often swing from one extreme to another and forget that true virtue lies in moderation.
Walter Raleigh's quote highlights the human tendency to react to past hardships by overcorrecting into the opposite extreme, ultimately forgetting that true virtue and balance are found in a moderate approach. This suggests a profound understanding of human nature and the importance of maintaining equilibrium rather than succumbing to extremes, which can lead to unwise choices and behaviors.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about finding balance in life choices.
Passions are liken'd best to floods and streams:_x000D_ _x000D_ The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb;_x000D_ _x000D_ So, when affection yields discourse, it seems_x000D_ _x000D_ The bottom is but shallow whence they come._x000D_ _x000D_ They that are rich in words, in words discover
Silence in love betrays more woe - Than words though ne'er so witty; A beggar that is dumb, you know, may challenge double pity.
Even such isTime, which takes in trust Our youth, our joys, and all we have, And pays us but with age and dust, Who in the dark and silent grave When we have wandered all our ways Shuts up the story of our days, And from which earth, and grave, and dust The Lord shall raise me up, I trust.
If she undervalues me, _x000D_ _x000D_ What care I how fair she be?
If all the world and love were young,_x000D_ _x000D_ And truth in every shepherd's tongue,_x000D_ _x000D_ These pretty pleasures might me move_x000D_ _x000D_ To live with thee, and be thy love.
No one is wise or safe, but they that are honest.
A message came from my youth of vanished days, saying, 'I wait for you among the quivering of unborn May, where smiles ripen for tears and hours ache with songs unsung.' It says, 'Come to me across the worn-out track of age, through the gates of death. For dreams fade, hopes fail, the fathered fruits of the year decay, but I am the eternal truth, and you shall meet me again and again in your voyage of life from shore to shore.
You are certainly under the guidance of the Holy Ghost or you wouldn't have come where you now are.
Compassion has enemies, and those enemies are things like pity, moral outrage, fear.
I might respect you as a brilliant intellect, runner, musician or juggler. But respect your BELIEFS? Only if they're supported by evidence.
What terrified me will terrify others; and I need only describe the spectre which had haunted my midnight pillow.
In the end, they wanted security more than they wanted freedom.
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