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.
It's a funny thing about cities: Some have brief, bright moments of cultural and political dominance, decades- or centuries-long spells when they seem the center of their particular nation, or region, or empire... only to later fall into obscurity and disrepair, never to regain their former glory.
How did her life live itself without her.
...nature seems very conversant with the rules of pure mathematics, as our own mathematicians have formulated them in their studies, out of their own inner consciousness and without drawing to any appreciable extent on their experience of the outer world.
Moral crusaders with zeal but no ethical understanding are likely to give us solutions that are worse than the problems.
Human progress planned as alternatives (to God's plan) introduce in justice, evil and violence rising against the divine plan of justice and salvation. And despite transitory and apparent successes, they are reduced to simple machinations destined to dissolution and failure.
Peace is the precious fruit of a righteous life. It is possible because of the Atonement of the Savior. It is earned through full repentance, for that leads to refreshing forgiveness.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.