It is reasonable to have perfection in our eye that we may always advance toward it, though we know it can never be reached.
Interpretation
Striving for perfection is a valuable pursuit, even if it remains unattainable.
This quote suggests that while perfection itself may be an unrealistic goal, having it as a guiding principle can motivate us to improve and advance in our lives. The acknowledgment that perfection is unattainable does not diminish its importance; instead, it highlights the journey of striving toward it as a valuable aspect of personal growth and development.
In practice
In a motivational speech about personal development, you can use this quote to encourage the audience to pursue their goals.
To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.
He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.
To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of the weary pilgrimage.
Fly-fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.
When any anxiety or gloom of the mind takes hold of you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaining; but exert yourselves to hide it, and by endeavoring to hide it you drive it away.
A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other.
See the hand that nursed the serpent. The fine hasped pipes of her fingerbones. The skin bewenned and speckled. The veins are milkblue and bulby. A thin gold ring set with diamonds. That raised the once child's heart of her to agonies of passion before I was. Here is the anguish of mortality. Hopes wrecked, love sundered. See the mother sorrowing. How everything that I was warned of's come to pass.
You are very harsh.' 'I have seen the world.
A compassionate heart still feels anger, greed, jealousy, and other such emotions. But it accepts them for what they are with equanimity, and cultivates the strength of mind to let them arise and pass without identifying with or acting upon them.
We all agree that forgiveness is a beautiful idea until we have to practice it.
I do not know what 'moss' stands for in the proverb , but if it stood for useful knowledge... I gathered more moss by rolling than I ever did at school.
I think you have to listen to the people who are deeply unhappy. You have to find the source of it and not overreact to the craziness in it.
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