Seek not greatness, but seek truth and you will find both.
Interpretation
Pursuing truth leads to true greatness.
In this quote, Horace Mann emphasizes the importance of seeking truth rather than chasing after greatness for its own sake. He suggests that by focusing on understanding and embracing truth, one may inadvertently achieve greatness as a byproduct of this pursuit. This underscores the idea that authenticity and integrity are more valuable than the superficial accolades of success.
In practice
This quote could inspire students during a graduation speech about the importance of integrity over accolades.
Under the Providence of God, our means of education are the grand machinery by which the 'raw material' of human nature can be worked up into inventors and discoverers, into skilled artisans and scientific farmers, into scholars and jurists, into the founders of benevolent institutions, and the great expounders of ethical and theological science.
Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.
There may be frugality which is not economy. A community, that withholds the means of education from its children, withholds the bread of life and starves their souls.
Let us labor for that larger comprehension of truth, and that more thorough repudiation of error, which shall make the history of mankind a series of ascending developments.
Great knowledge is requisite to instruct those who have been well instructed, but still greater knowledge is requisite to instruct those who have been neglected.
Virtue is an angel, but she is a blind one, and must ask Knowledge to show her the pathway that leads to her goal.
The Buddha compared anger with picking up hot coals with one's bare hands and trying to throw them at the person with whom one is angry. Who gets burned first? The one who is angry of course.
If uncertainty is unacceptable to you, it turns into fear. If it is perfectly acceptable, it turns into increased aliveness, alertness, and creativity.
Clarity is the most important thing. I can compare clarity to pruning in gardening. You know, you need to be clear. If you are not clear, nothing is going to happen. You have to be clear. Then you have to be confident about your vision. And after that, you just have to put a lot of work in.
Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant.
When a wise man is advised of his errors, he will reflect on and improve his conduct. When his misconduct is pointed out, a foolish man will not only disregard the advice but rather repeat the same error.
The higher the hill, the stronger the wind: so the loftier the life, the stronger the enemy's temptations.
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