How vainly men themselves amaze, / To win the palm, the oak, or bays; / And their incessant labours see / Crowned from some single herb or tree.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the futility of human effort in the pursuit of glory, as it often leads to trivial rewards.
In this quote, Andrew Marvell critiques the vanity and futility of human endeavors aimed at achieving recognition and accolades. He suggests that despite the intense labor and ambition that people invest in their pursuits, the rewards they receive are often insignificant, symbolized by a single herb or tree, rather than the grand achievements they aspire to, like the palm or the oak. This observation prompts a reflection on the nature of success and the often overlooked simplicity beneath it.
In practice
This quote is perfect for a speech about the true meaning of success and human ambition.
Meanwhile the mind, from pleasure less, Withdraws into its happiness; The mind, that ocean where each kind Does straight its own resemblance find; Yet it creates, transcending these, Far other worlds, and other seas; Annihilating all that's made To a green thought in a green glade ... Such was that happy garden-state.
How could such sweet and wholesome hours be reckoned, but in herbs and flowers?
Now therefore, while the youthful hue Sits on thy skin like morning dew, And while thy willing soul transpires At every pore with instant fires Now let us sport us while we may, And now, like amorous birds of prey, Rather at once our time devour Than languish in his slow-chapped power. Let us roll our strength and all Our sweetness up into one ball And tear our pleasures with rough strife Through the iron gates of life: Thus, while we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.
Annihilating all that's made, To a green thought in a green shade.
Self-preservation, nature's first great law, all the creatures, except man, doth awe.
Like the vain curlings of the watery maze,_x000D_ Which in smooth streams a sinking weight does raise,_x000D_ So Man, declining always, disappears_x000D_ In the weak circles of increasing years;_x000D_ And his short tumults of themselves compose,_x000D_ While flowing Time above his head does close.
[T]he more clamour we make about 'the women's point of view', the more we rub it into people that the women's point of view is different, and frankly I do not think it is -- at least in my job. The line I always want to take is, that there is the 'point of view' of the reasonably enlightened human brain, and that this is the aspect of the matter which I am best fitted to uphold.
If you give appreciation to people, you win their goodwill. But more important than that, practicing this philosophy has made a different person of me.
I don't believe there is such a thing as 'moderate Islam.' I think it's better to talk about degrees of belief and degrees of practice.
We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the development of man's knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to the answer.
I was not, I was, I am not, I care not. (Non fui, fui, non sum, non curo)
The spectacle is at the same time the mirage of self in the mirror of things.
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