I hope, if you should live to grow up, you will endeavour to be very useful and not spend all your time in pleasing yourself.
Interpretation
The quote encourages focusing on being useful to others rather than solely seeking personal pleasure.
Elizabeth Fry's quote emphasizes the value of contributing to society and being beneficial to those around us. It highlights the importance of living a purposeful life by engaging in activities that serve a greater good instead of prioritizing self-indulgence.
In practice
In a graduation speech, one might quote Fry to inspire students to contribute positively to society.
The loveliest, sweetest flower that bloomed in paradise, and the first that died, has rarely blossomed since on mortal soil. It is so frail, so delicate, a thing, it is gone if it but look upon itself; and she who ventures to esteem it hers proves by that single thought she has it not.
The third class consists of men to whom nothing seems great but reason. If force interests them, it is not in its exertion, but in that it has a reason and a law. For men of the first class, nature is a picture; for men of the second class, it is an opportunity; for men of the third class, it is a cosmos, so admirable, that to penetrate to its ways seems to them the only thing that makes life worth living. These are the men whom we see possessed by a passion to learn.
In the intellectual order, the virtue of humility is nothing more nor less than the power of attention.
There are a lot of people who helped make Queen Latifah who she is today. I don't forget, but a lot of people do and get big heads. My mom will make me walk the dogs or take out the trash when I go home. I'm not allowed to get a big head; I've still got to do the simple things in life.
Remember that you own what happened to you. If your childhood was less than ideal, you may have been raised thinking that if you told the truth about what really went on in your family, a long bony white finger would emerge from a cloud and point to you, while a chilling voice thundered, "We *told* you not to tell." But that was then. Just put down on paper everything you can remember now about your parents and siblings and relatives and neighbors, and we will deal with libel later on.
Simplicity and sincerity generally go hand in hand, as both proceed from a love of truth.
To be a man is, precisely, to be responsible.
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