though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.
Interpretation
Success and fulfillment come through hard work and effort in our personal endeavors.
This quote suggests that while there is goodness and potential in the world around us, individual success is dependent on the dedicated work we put into our own lives and responsibilities. It emphasizes the importance of personal effort—the 'toil'—in reaping rewards, which are symbolized by the 'kernel of nourishing corn'.
In practice
During a graduation speech to inspire students about their futures.
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
The world belongs to the energetic.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
Habit simplifies our movements, makes them accurate, and diminishes fatigue.
For want of self-restraint many men are engaged all their lives in fighting with difficulties of their own making.
By Time and Age full many things are taught.
Whatever he says, let his inner resolution be not to bear whatever comes to him, but to bear it 'for a reasonable period'--and let the reasonable period be shorter than the trial is likely to last. It need not be much shorter; in attacks on patience, chastity, and fortitude, the fun is to make the man yield just when (had he but known it) relief was almost in sight.
A fault is fostered by concealment.
The greater intellect one has, the more originality one finds in men. Ordinary persons find no difference between men.
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