It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds. In the best books, great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours.
William Ellery ChanningRead
The office of government is not to confer happiness, but to give men the opportunity to work out happiness for themselves.
Interpretation
Government should facilitate the conditions for individuals to pursue their own happiness rather than provide happiness directly.
This quote emphasizes the belief that the role of government is not to provide happiness to its citizens but rather to create an environment where people can pursue their own paths to happiness. It suggests that true happiness is a personal endeavor and that individuals must have the freedom and opportunity to define and achieve it on their own.
In practice
In a discussion about the role of government at a community meeting, one might refer to this quote to highlight the importance of creating opportunities for citizens.
It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds. In the best books, great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours.
No power in society, no hardship in your condition can depress you, keep you down, in knowledge, power, virtue, influence, but by your own consent.
I laugh, for hope hath a happy place with me; If my boat sinks, 'tis to another sea.
We smile at the ignorance of the savage who cuts down the tree in order to reach its fruit; but the same blunder is made by every person who is over eager and impatient in the pursuit of pleasure.
Every mind was made for growth, for knowledge, and its nature is sinned against when it is doomed to ignorance.
He who is false to the present duty breaks a thread in the loom, and you will see the effect when the weaving of a life-time is unraveled.
Tragedy is formed 'round ideas it does not expound, and to understand its history is, in some part, to understand those ideas and their place in the society that produced it.
There is a name hidden in the shadow of my soul, where I read it night and day and no other eye sees it.
I got a statistic for you right now. Grab your pencil, Doug. There are five billion trees in the world. I looked it up. Under every tree is a shadow, right? So, then, what makes night? I'll tell you: shadows crawling out from under five billion trees! Think of it! Shadows running around in the air, muddying the waters you might say. If only we could figure a way to keep those darn five billion shadows under those trees, we could stay up half the night, Doug, because there'd be no night!
Christ died for men precisely because men are not worth dying for; to make them worth it.
May I not forget that poverty and riches are of the spirit. Though the world knows me not, may my thoughts and actions be such as will keep me friendly with myself.
The 'peace' the gospel brings is never the absence of conflict, but an ineffable divine reassurance within the heart of conflict; a peace that surpasses understanding.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.