Change is the sum of the universe, and what is of nature ought not to be feared. But one gives it hostages, and lays one's grief upon the gods. Sokrates is free, and would have taught me freedom. But I have yoked the immortal horse that draws the chariot with a horse of earth; and when the one falls, both are entangled in the traces.
Interpretation
Change is a fundamental part of existence, and it should not be feared. Accepting this can lead to freedom from grief.
This quote reflects on the inevitability of change in the universe and encourages the acceptance of that change, rather than fearing it. It suggests that by clinging to our grief and allowing it to control us, we become trapped, much like binding a celestial horse to an earthly one, thus dragging both into entanglement. The reference to Sokrates indicates an aspiration for true freedom, which involves embracing the nature of change rather than resisting it.
In practice
This quote can be used in a motivational speech about embracing life's changes.
Do not believe that others will die, not you.... I have wrestled with Thanatos knee to knee and I know how death is vanquished. Man's immortality is not to live forever; for that wish is born of fear. Each moment free from fear makes a man immortal.
One must live as if it would be forever, and as if one might die each moment. Always both at once.
In hatred as in love, we grow like the thing we brood upon. What we loathe, we graft into our very soul.
I thought, There goes my lord, whom I was born to follow. I have found a King. And, I said to myself, looking after him as he walked away, I will have him, if I die for it.
My theory is this: Rather than having commentaries from the cheap seats, get involved and see what you can do. What can you do around your own community, within your own family, to try to improve race relations in our country? I think this is a responsibility that we all have as citizens.
The natural cure for an ill-administration, in a popular or representative constitution, is a change of men.
No matter what mistakes we might have made yesterday, today is the day we can retrieve our innocence.
I wanted to go to Washington to bring people together who had never been together before. I wanted to break down the barriers between races.
One of the most predictable things in life is there will be change. You are better off if you can have a say in the change. But you are ignorant or naive if you don't think there will be change, whether you want it to or not.
We campaigned across the South . . . without a single catcall or boo. It was not until we got north to New York that we began to hear this from Koch, President Reagan, and then Mrs. Ferraro . . . . Some people are making hysteria while I'm making history.
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