Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.
John SteinbeckRead
And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good.
Interpretation
Embracing imperfection allows us to focus on being the best version of ourselves.
This quote by John Steinbeck highlights the importance of accepting our imperfections. By letting go of the unrealistic expectation of perfection, we can strive to be good, which is an attainable goal that fosters personal growth, self-acceptance, and a more authentic life.
In practice
During a motivational speech to encourage students to embrace their flaws.
Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.
At one point, as Samuel urges Adam to raise his boys well regardless of the blood that might be in them, Adam tells him, "You can't make a race horse of a pig." Samuel replies, "No, but you can make a very fast pig.
And when that crop grew, and was harvested, no man had crumbled a hot clod in his fingers and let the earth sift past his fingertips. No man had touched the seed, or lusted for the growth. Men ate what they had not raised, had no connection with the bread. The land bore under iron, and under iron gradually died; for it was not loved or hated, it had no prayers or curses.
The comfortable people in tight houses felt pity at first, and then distaste, and finally hatred for the migrant people.
People do not want advice - they want corroboration.
It is one of the triumphs of the human that he can know a thing and still not believe it.
Information work is thinking work.
Beware the tyranny of the weak. They just suck you dry.
Criticism should not be querulous and wasting, all knife and root-puller, but guiding, instructive, inspiring, a south wind, not an east wind.
Never did a great man hate good wine.
Prefer punishment to disgraceful gain; for the one is painful but once, but the other for one's whole life.
I find my life is a lot easier the lower I keep everyone's expectations.
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