As long as habit and routine dictate the pattern of living, new dimensions of the soul will not emerge.
Henry Van DykeRead
It is with rivers as it is with people: the greatest are not always the most agreeable nor the best to live with.
Interpretation
Not all great individuals or things are easy to get along with or ideal for coexistence.
This quote by Henry Van Dyke compares rivers to people, suggesting that the most significant or impressive entities are not necessarily those that are pleasant or easy to be around. Just like rivers can be powerful and awe-inspiring yet challenging to navigate, people who possess great qualities might also have traits that make them difficult companions. This invites reflection on accepting complexity in both nature and human relationships.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about leadership qualities during a conference.
As long as habit and routine dictate the pattern of living, new dimensions of the soul will not emerge.
Let me but find it in my heart to say, When vagrant wishes beckon me astray, "This is my work; my blessing, not my doom; Of all who live, I am the one by whom This work can best be done in the right way."
And you will remember that love is not getting, but giving; not a wild dream of pleasure, and a madness of desire β oh no, love is not that β it is goodness, and honour, and peace, and pure living β yes, love is that; and it is the best thing in the world, and the thing that lives longest.
Oh, London is a man's town, there's power in the air; And Paris is a woman's town, with flowers in her hair; And it's sweet to dream in Venice, and it's great to study Rome; But when it comes to living, there is no place like home.
No amount of energy will take the place of thought. A strenuous life with its eyes shut is a kind of wild insanity.
A peace that depends on fear is nothing but a suppressed war.
[Hermes addresses Prometheus :] To you, the clever and crafty, bitter beyond all bitterness, who has sinned against the gods in bestowing honors upon creatures of a day--to you, thief of fire, I speak.
Our responsibility is much greater than we might have supposed, because it involves all mankind.
The world is by no means averse to religion. In fact, it is devoted to it with a passion. It will buy any recipe for salvation as long as that formula leaves the responsibility for cooking up salvation firmly in human hands. The world is drowning in religion. But it is scared out of its wits by any mention of the grace that takes the world home gratis.
Trust and value your own divinity as well as your connection to nature. Seeing God's work everywhere will be your reward.
Seeing the lightest and gayest purple was then most in fashion, he would always wear that which was the nearest black; and he would often go out of doors, after his morning meal, without either shoes or tunic; not that he sought vain-glory from such novelties, but he would accustom himself to be ashamed only of what deserves shame, and to despise all other sorts of disgrace.
The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.
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