Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.
Interpretation
One should strive to achieve something meaningful before leaving this world.
Horace Mannβs quote encourages individuals to dedicate their lives toward achieving victories that benefit humanity. It suggests that personal accomplishments should not come at the expense of broader social contributions, and emphasizes the importance of making a positive impact before one's time is up.
In practice
This quote can be used in a graduation speech to inspire graduates to pursue impactful careers.
Under the Providence of God, our means of education are the grand machinery by which the 'raw material' of human nature can be worked up into inventors and discoverers, into skilled artisans and scientific farmers, into scholars and jurists, into the founders of benevolent institutions, and the great expounders of ethical and theological science.
There may be frugality which is not economy. A community, that withholds the means of education from its children, withholds the bread of life and starves their souls.
Let us labor for that larger comprehension of truth, and that more thorough repudiation of error, which shall make the history of mankind a series of ascending developments.
Great knowledge is requisite to instruct those who have been well instructed, but still greater knowledge is requisite to instruct those who have been neglected.
Virtue is an angel, but she is a blind one, and must ask Knowledge to show her the pathway that leads to her goal.
Genius may conceive but patient labor must consummate.
Faith makes it possible to achieve that which man's mind can conceive and believe.
You might find it necessary to 'snap' out of your mental inertia, moving slowly at first, then increasing your speed, until you gain complete control over your will. Be persistent no matter how slowly you may, at first, have to move. With persistence will come success.
You can never give up-athletics taught me that. You must work hard, prepare, learn from your losses and continue to fight until the very end.
I've said that if you're not doing something that you're passionate about, you're compromising yourself every single day.
Focus on your dream and do everything in your power. You have the power to change your life circumstances.
Don't let the winds blow your dreams away... or steal your faith in God.
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