As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, / I must not look to have; but, in their stead, / Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath, / Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not" (5.3.25-28).
William ShakespeareRead
There's an old saying that applies to me: you can't lose a game if you don't play the game. (Act 1, scene 4)
Interpretation
This quote suggests that avoiding participation guarantees no failure, highlighting the risks of inaction.
In this quote, Shakespeare reflects on the idea that not engaging in challenges means one cannot experience failure. By not playing the game, a person is safeguarded from loss, but also from any potential gains or experiences that come from taking risks. It emphasizes that inaction may seem safer but can lead to missed opportunities.
In practice
During a motivational speech about embracing challenges.
As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, / I must not look to have; but, in their stead, / Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath, / Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not" (5.3.25-28).
Love bears it out even to the edge of doom.
Good company, good wine, good welcome, can make good people.
Absence doth sharpen love, presence strengthens it; the one brings fuel, the other blows it till it burns clear.
Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying!
Give it an understanding, but no tongue.
Who can live with this Consciousness and not wake frightened at sunrise?
Our disrespect for thinking: someone sitting in a chair, gazing out of a window blankly, always described as 'doing nothing'.
In our period, they say there is free speech. They say there is no penalty for poets, There is no penalty for writing poems. They say this. This is the penalty.
If the highest things are unknowable, then the highest capacity or virtue of man cannot be theoretical wisdom.
Who has a harder fight than he who is striving to overcome himself.
I thought I was growing wings— it was a cocoon. I thought, now is the time to step into the fire— it was deep water. Eschatology is a word I learned as a child: the study of Last Things; facing my mirror—no longer young, the news—always of death, the dogs—rising from sleep and clamoring and howling, howling.... ("Seeing For a Moment")
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