Acquire a government over your ideas, that they may come down when they are called, and depart when they are bidden.
Isaac WattsRead
The tulip and the butterfly_x000D_ _x000D_ Appear in gayer coats than I:_x000D_ _x000D_ Let me be dressed fine as I will,_x000D_ _x000D_ Flies, worms, and flowers exceed me still.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the beauty of nature and the humility of human existence in comparison.
Isaac Watts poetically expresses how the natural world, represented by the tulip and the butterfly, displays vibrant beauty that surpasses human appearances, regardless of one's efforts to adorn oneself. This reflection not only emphasizes the stunning colors and life in nature but also serves as a reminder of the humility that accompanies being part of a larger, intricate world.
Themes
NatureHumilityBeautyComparisonExistence
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about appreciating life's simple beauties, this quote could serve as a reflection on how we often overlook nature's wonders.
More from Isaac Watts
All quotes βInstructors should not only be skilful in those sciences which they teach, but have skill in the method of teaching, and patience in the practice.
Isaac WattsRead
Acquaint yourself with your own ignorance.
Isaac WattsRead
To prevent and suppress rising resentment is wise and glorious, is manly and divine.
Isaac WattsRead
Kind words toward those you daily meet, Kind words and actions right, Will make this life of ours most sweet, Turn darkness into night.
Isaac WattsRead
Though reading and conversation may furnish us with many ideas of men and things, yet it is our own meditation must form our judgment.
Isaac WattsRead
Similar quotes
There is another sort of day which needs celebrating in song -- the day of days when spring at last holds up her face to be kissed, deliberate and unabashed. On that day no wind blows either in the hills or in the mind.
E. B. WhiteRead
It drives me crazy to see so much of this planet's life so casually endangered. The first steps are so easy (drive smaller cars, for instance) that it's very hard to understand why we haven't taken them. But I know that this is the issue our generation will be judged by.
Bill MckibbenRead
Maybe nature is fundamentally ugly, chaotic and complicated. But if it's like that, then I want out.
Steven WeinbergRead
A man who lives with nature is used to violence and is companionable with death. There is more violence in an English hedgerow than in the meanest streets of a great city.
P. D. JamesRead
It's not a choice between our environment and our economy; it's a choice between prosperity and decline.
Barack ObamaRead
When I first ventured into the Gulf of Mexico in the 1950s, the sea appeared to be a blue infinity too large, too wild to be harmed by anything that people could do.
Sylvia EarleRead