It is much more valuable to look for the strength in others. You can gain nothing by criticizing their imperfections.
Daisaku IkedaRead
Poems and songs penned as an unstoppable outpouring of the heart take on a life of their own. They transcend the limits of nationality and time as they pass from person to person, from one heart to another.
Interpretation
Creative expressions like poems and songs resonate universally, connecting people across cultures and eras.
This quote reflects on the profound power of artistic expression, particularly in the form of poems and songs. Such creations, when born from genuine emotion, can bridge boundaries of nationality and time, allowing them to touch the hearts of many, regardless of their background. This speaks to the idea that art has a unique ability to unify humanity and evoke shared feelings, making its impact timeless and universally relatable.
In practice
In a graduation speech to inspire students about the universal nature of creativity and expression.
It is much more valuable to look for the strength in others. You can gain nothing by criticizing their imperfections.
There’s no need for us to be held back by the past or how things have been so far. The important thing is what seeds we are sowing now for the future.
True love should be transformative; a process that amplifies our capacity to cherish not just one person but all people. It can make us stronger, lift us higher and deepen us as individuals. Only to the extent that we polish ourselves now can we hope to develop wonderful bonds of the heart in the future.
Let us give something to each person we meet: joy, courage, hope, assurance, or philosophy, wisdom, a vision for the future. Let us always give something.
Just as a diamond can only be polished by another diamond, it is only through genuine, all-out engagement with others that people can polish their character, and help each other to reach greater heights.
Creating harmony amidst diversity is a fundamental issue of the twenty-first century. While celebrating the unique characteristics of different peoples and cultures, we have to create solidarity on the level of our common humanity, our common life. Without such solidarity, there will be no future for the human race. Diversity should not beget conflict in the world, but richness.
Writing, real writing, should leave a small sweet bruise somewhere on the writer . . . and on the reader.
I don't do fashion, I AM fashion.
A lot of people insisted on a wall between modern dance and ballet, that the two disciplines were totally separate, and if you did one, you couldn’t do the other. I’m beginning to think that walls are very unhealthy things.
Films to the degree that they glorify mindlessness and short attention span they are bad, to the degree that they encourage empathy with people not like ourselves and encourage us to think about life, they are good.
If you go all the way back, I've always written science-fiction, I've always written fantasy, I've always written horror stories and monster stories, right from the beginning of my career. I've always moved back and forth between the genres. I don't really recognise that there's a significant difference between them in some senses.
People call me the painter of dancing girls. It has never occurred to them that my chief interest in dancers lies in rendering movement and painting pretty clothes.
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