When people complain of life, it is almost always because they have asked impossible things of it.
Interpretation
People often feel dissatisfied with life when they set unrealistic expectations.
This quote by Ernest Renan suggests that dissatisfaction with life frequently arises from unrealistic demands or expectations placed upon it. When individuals expect too much from their circumstances or life itself, they are likely to encounter disappointment and frustration, leading to complaints about their experiences.
In practice
This quote could be used in a motivational speech about the importance of realistic goal-setting.
None of the miracles with which ancient histories are filled, occurred under scientific conditions. Observation never once contradicted, teaches us that miracles occur only in periods and countries in which they are believed in and before persons disposed to believe in them.
Man makes holy what he believes as he makes beautiful what he loves.
Forgetfulness, and I would even say historical error, are essential in the creation of a nation.
He whom God has touched will always be a being apart: he is, whatever he may do, a stranger among men; he is marked by a sign.
Let us remember that sorrow alone is the creator of great things.
The talent of historians lies in their creating a true ensemble out of facts which are but half true.
The union of the mind and intuition which brings about illumination, and the development which the Sufis seek, is based upon love.
The most mediocre of males feels himself a demigod as compared with women.
At least five times, with the Arian and the Albigensian, with the Humanist skeptic, after Voltaire and after Darwin, the Christian Faith has to all appearance, gone to the dogs? But, in each of these five cases, it was the dog that died.
Worthy persons deserve to be called so because they are not carried away by the eight winds: prosperity,decline,disgrace,honor,praise,censure,suffering, and pleasure.They are neither elated by prosperity nor grieved by decline. The heavenly gods will surely protect one who is unbending before the eight winds.
The basis of democratic freedom is freedom of speech.
Still shaking, in the pew, I understood that it isn't the dead we cry for. We cry for ourselves, and I didn't deserve my own pity.
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