The writing of the wise are the only riches our posterity cannot squander.
Walter Savage LandorRead
We often fancy that we suffer from ingratitude, while in reality we suffer from self-love.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that feelings of ingratitude may stem from a focus on self-love rather than genuine neglect from others.
Walter Savage Landor reflects on the nature of our emotional suffering, indicating that what we often perceive as ingratitude directed towards us is, in fact, a consequence of our own self-centeredness. This self-love can distort our perceptions, causing us to overlook the appreciation we receive from others and to focus instead on our unmet desires or expectations.
In practice
In a motivational speech about self-awareness and emotional health.
The writing of the wise are the only riches our posterity cannot squander.
Those who are quite satisfied sit still and do nothing; those who are not quite satisfied are the sole benefactors of the world.
Death stands above me, whispering low I know not what into my ear; Of his strange language all I know Is, there is not a word of fear.
We listen to those whom we know to be of the same opinion as ourselves, and we call them wise for being of it; but we avoid such as differ from us.
Life and death appear more certainly ours than whatsoever else; and yet hardly can that be called ours, which comes without our knowledge, and goes without it.
I strove with none, for none was worth my strife. Nature I loved and, next to Nature, Art: I warm'd both hands before the fire of life; It sinks, and I am ready to depart.
Not much longer shall we have time for reading lessons of the past. An inexorable present calls us to the defense of a great future.
The sneakiest form of literary subtlety, in a corrupt society, is to speak the plain truth. The critics will not understand you; the public will not believe you; your fellow writers will shake their heads. Laughter, praise, honors, money, and the love of beautiful girls will be your only reward.
If it had not been for the pernicious power of envy, men would not so have exalted vengeance above innocence and profit above justice... in these acts of revenge on others, men take it upon themselves to begin the process of repealing those general laws of humanity which are there to give a hope of salvation to all who are in distress.
Death, I need my little addiction to you. I need that tiny voice who, even as I rise from the sea, all woman, all there, says kill me, kill me.
Tolerance, openness and understanding towards other peoples' cultures, social structures, values and faiths are now essential to the very survival of an interdependent world.
We must reason in natural philosophy not from what we hope, or even expect, but from what we perceive.
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