One feels as if it could never, never be less. And yet all griefs, when there is no bitterness in them, are soothed down by time.
Interpretation
Time has a way of healing emotional pain and grief, especially when it is accepted without resentment.
This quote reflects the idea that grief often feels overwhelming and unending at the moment, but with the passage of time, it tends to become more bearable, particularly when one adopts a mindset free of bitterness. It suggests that while grief can be profound, it is not a permanent state, as the healing process does take place, allowing individuals to find solace and peace over time.
In practice
In a speech about overcoming loss, one might say, 'As Jane Welsh Carlyle wisely noted, while it feels like grief will last forever, time helps us heal.'
Does not a man physically tremble under the mere look of a wild beast or fellow-man that is stronger than himself? Does not a woman redden all over when she feels her lover's eyes on her? How then should one doubt the mysterious power of one individual over another?
How many precious things do we not already possess which others have not - have hardly an idea of! Let us enjoy these, then, and bless God that we are permitted to enjoy them, rather than importune His goodness with vain longings for more.
The surest way to get a thing in this life is to be prepared for doing without it, to the exclusion even of hope.
I declare I would rather be a kitten and cry, 'Mew!' than live as I see many of my female acquaintances do, tearing each other's characters to pieces, and wearing out their lives in vanity and vexation of spirit.
But what are friends? What is a husband, even, compared with one's Mother? Of her love, one is always so sure! It is the only love that nothing - not even misconduct on our part - can take away from us.
Never does one feel oneself so utterly helpless as in trying to speak comfort for great bereavement.
Conservative evangelicals don't want government support for our faith, because we believe God created all consciences free and a state-coerced act of worship isn't acceptable to God. Moreover, we believe the gospel isn't in need of state endorsement or assistance. Wall Street may need government bailouts but the Damascus Road never does.
We must seek, in studying God, to be led to God.
We are prone to see what lies behind our eyes, rather than what apprears before them.
When you desire the common good, the whole world desires with you. Make humanity's desire your own and work for it. There you cannot fail.
The ultimate aim of Karate lies not in victory or defeat, but in the perfection of the character of its participants.
What the mysterious is I do not know. I do not call it God because God has come to mean much that I do not believe in. I find myself incapable of thinking of a deity or of any unknown supreme power in anthropomorphic terms, and the fact that many people think so is continually a source of surprise to me. Any idea of a personal God seems very odd to me.
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