How sickness enlarges the dimensions of a man's self to himself! Supreme selfishness is inculcated upon him as his only duty.
Interpretation
Sickness often forces individuals to reflect on themselves and recognize their own needs, highlighting a selfish aspect of self-care.
In this quote, Charles Lamb expresses how illness can profoundly alter a person's perception of self. When one is unwell, the focus naturally shifts inward, emphasizing personal suffering and care, which can lead to an enlightenment of the self. This experience cultivates a form of selfishness as individuals prioritize their health and well-being above all else, illuminating the duality of self-centeredness in the context of an individual's responsibility towards their own existence.
In practice
In a motivational speech to a health audience, to emphasize the importance of self-care during illness.
Thus, when the lamp that lighted The traveller at first goes out, He feels awhile benighted, And looks around in fear and doubt. But soon, the prospect clearing, By cloudless starlight on he treads, And thinks no lamp so cheering As that light which Heaven sheds.
As down in the sunless retreats of the ocean Sweet flowers are springing no mortal can see, So deep in my soul the still prayer of devotion, Unheard by the world, rises silent to Thee. As still to the star of its worship, though clouded, The needle points faithfully o'er the dim sea, So dark when I roam in this wintry world shrouded, The hope of my spirit turns trembling to Thee.
The most mortifying infirmity in human nature, to feel in ourselves, or to contemplate in another, is perhaps cowardice.
Oh, ever thus, from childhood's hour, I 've seen my fondest hopes decay; I never loved a tree or flower But 't was the first to fade away. I never nurs'd a dear gazelle, To glad me with its soft black eye, But when it came to know me well And love me, it was sure to die.
May my last breath be drawn through a pipe, and exhaled in a jest.
A pun is not bound by the laws which limit nicer wit. It is a pistol let off at the ear; not a feather to tickle the intellect.
We often think we express negative emotions, not because we cannot help it, but because we should express them.
The point is that our true nature is not some ideal that we have to live up to. It's who we are right now, and that's what we can make friends with and celebrate.
I'm not a representative of blackness, and I'm not a healer.
What makes earth feel like hell is our expectation that it should feel like heaven.
What is madness but nobility of soul at odds with circumstance?
So really what it comes down to, it's God. Wherever you look, it's God appearing as this, that, that...and what you really love and appreciate in each form is the divine formless out of which each form comes. But to be able to sense that you have to sense it in yourself first. And that is seeing the beauty in everything, that's really what it means.
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