We are slow to believe that which if believed would hurt our feelings.
OvidRead
The sharp thorn often produces delicate roses.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Challenges can lead to beautiful outcomes.
This quote suggests that out of hardship or difficulty (represented by the 'sharp thorn'), something beautiful and positive can emerge (symbolized by the 'delicate roses'). It highlights the paradox of life where struggles and pains can ultimately lead to growth and beauty.
Themes
ChallengesBeautyGrowthNaturePosivity
In practice
Example use cases
During a presentation on overcoming obstacles, I used this quote to illustrate resilience.
More from Ovid
All quotes βAll things human hang by a slender thread; and that which seemed to stand strong suddenly falls and sinks in ruins.
OvidRead
A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right man's brow.
OvidRead
Fas est ab hoste doceri._x000D_ One should learn even from one's enemies.
OvidRead
Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you.
OvidRead
The end doesn't justify the means.
OvidRead
Similar quotes
The country where he lives is haunted by the ghost of an old forest. In the cleared fields where he gardens and pastures his horses it stood once, and will return. There will be a resurrection of the wild. Already it stands in wait at the pasture fences.
Wendell BerryRead
Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language.
Aldo LeopoldRead
We should attempt to bring nature, houses, and human beings together in a higher unity.
Ludwig Mies Van Der RoheRead
If the national park is, as Lord Bryce suggested, the best idea America has ever had, wilderness preservation is the highest refinement of that idea.
Wallace StegnerRead
The least movement is of importance to all nature. The entire ocean is affected by a pebble.
Blaise PascalRead
We have not the reverent feeling for the rainbow that the savage has, because we know how it is made. We have lost as much as we gained by prying into that matter.
Mark TwainRead