Flowers have spoken to me more than I can tell in written words. They are the hieroglyphics of angels, loved by all men for the beauty of their character, though few can decipher even fragments of their meaning.
Lydia M. ChildRead
Nature made us individuals, as she did the flowers and the pebbles; but we are afraid to be peculiar, and so our society resembles a bag of marbles, or a string of mold candles. Why should we all dress after the same fashion? The frost never paints my windows twice alike.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of individuality and authenticity in a society that often pressures conformity.
Lydia M. Child highlights how nature's diversity reflects the beauty of individuality, contrasting it with the human tendency to conform and resemble one another. She uses the imagery of flowers and pebbles to illustrate that just as nature creates unique forms, we should embrace our uniqueness instead of adhering to societal norms. By doing so, we allow ourselves to express our true selves, rather than blending into a dull uniformity.
In practice
In a speech about creativity, one might quote this to encourage people to embrace their unique ideas.
Flowers have spoken to me more than I can tell in written words. They are the hieroglyphics of angels, loved by all men for the beauty of their character, though few can decipher even fragments of their meaning.
Misfortune is never mournful to the soul that accepts it; for such do always see that every cloud is an angel's face.
We first crush people to the earth, and then claim the right of trampling on them forever, because they are prostrate.
We had a sunset of a very fine sort. The vast plain of the sea was marked off in bands of sharply-contrasted colors: great stretches of dark blue, others of purple, others of polished bronze; the billowy mountains showed all sorts of dainty browns and greens, blues and purples and blacks, and the rounded velvety backs of certain of them made one want to stroke them, as one would the sleek back of a cat.
To dwellers in a wood, almost every species of tree has its voice as well as its feature.
Earth as an ecosystem stands out in the all of the universe. There's no place that we know about that can support life as we know it, not even our sister planet, Mars, where we might set up housekeeping someday, but at great effort and trouble we have to recreate the things we take for granted here.
The Caribbean is an immense ocean that just happens to have a few islands in it. The people have an immense respect for it, awe of it.
Great attention gets paid to rainforests because of the diversity of life there. Diversity in the oceans is even greater.
When I go biking, I repeat a mantra of the day's sensations: bright sun, blue sky, warm breeze, blue jay's call, ice melting and so on. This helps me transcend the traffic, ignore the clamorings of work, leave all the mind theaters behind and focus on nature instead. I still must abide by the rules of the road, of biking, of gravity. But I am mentally far away from civilization. The world is breaking someone else's heart.
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