Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.
Robert Louis StevensonRead
Things looked at patiently from one side after another generally end by showing a side that is beautiful.
Interpretation
Patient observation reveals hidden beauty in situations.
This quote by Robert Louis Stevenson suggests that when we take the time to examine something from multiple perspectives, we often discover aspects that are beautiful or valuable. It encourages patience and openness, advocating for a deeper understanding of people and situations in life, implying that beauty often lies beneath the surface and is revealed through careful consideration.
In practice
In a workshop on creativity, one could use this quote to encourage participants to explore multiple viewpoints.
Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.
Like a bird singing in the rain, let grateful memories survive in time of sorrow.
That man is a success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much.
His past was fairly blameless; few men could read the rolls of their life with less apprehension; yet he was humbled to the dust by the many ill things he had done, and raised up again into sober and fearful gratitude by the many he had come so near to doing, yet avoided.
The habit of being happy enables one to be freed, or largely freed, from the domination of outward conditions.
It is the history of our kindnesses that alone make this world tolerable. If it were not for that, for the effect of kind words, kind looks, kind letters . . . I should be inclined to think our life a practical jest in the worst possible spirit.
The only people who are obsessed with food are anorexics and the morbidly obese. That, in erotic terms, is the Catholic church, in a nutshell.
He that has learned to feel his sins, and to trust Christ as a Saviour, has learned the two hardest and greatest lessons in Christianity.
Free election of masters does not abolish the masters or the slaves.
It is not your business to succeed, but to do right. When you have done so the rest lies with god.
Form is all we have to help us cope with fundamentally chaotic facts and assaults. Formulating something is a great start. I trust form, trust my feeling or capacity to find the right form for something. Even if that is only by being well organized. That too is form.
I don't think any of us can speak frankly about pain until we are no longer enduring it.
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