The laws of changeless justice bind oppressor and oppressed; and, close as sin and suffering joined we march to fate abreast.
John Greenleaf WhittierRead
The continuity of life is never broken; the river flows onward and is lost to our sight, but under its new horizon it carries the same waters which it gathered under ours, and its unseen valleys are made glad by the offerings which are borne down to them from the past,--flowers, perchance, the germs of which its own waves had planted on the banks of Time.
Interpretation
Life is a continuous flow, connecting the past with the present and future.
This quote expresses the idea that life is an unbroken continuum, where experiences, memories, and influences from the past contribute to the present and future. Just as a river carries waters from various sources, our lives are shaped by everything that has come before us, creating a connection across time and reminding us that what we see is only a part of a larger, unseen reality.
In practice
In a speech about legacy and heritage, one might use this quote to highlight the importance of our history.
The laws of changeless justice bind oppressor and oppressed; and, close as sin and suffering joined we march to fate abreast.
Nothing before, nothing behind; The steps of faith Fall on the seeming void, and find The Rock beneath.
the joy that you give to others is the joy that comes back to you
Before me, even as behind, God is, and all is well.
I know not where His islands lift Their fronded palms in air; I only know I cannot drift Beyond His love and care.
I'll lift you and you lift me, and we'll both ascend together.
Perhaps the time has come to cease calling it the 'environmentalist' view, as though it were a lobbying effort outside the mainstream of human activity, and to start calling it the real-world view.
If human nature does alter it will be because individuals manage to look at themselves in a new way. Here and there people - a very few people, but a few novelists are among them - are trying to do this. Every institution and vested interest in against such a search: organized religion, the state, the family in its economic aspect, have nothing to gain, and it is only when outward prohibitions weaken that it can proceed: history conditions it to that extent.
Anywhere, anytime ordinary people are given the chance to choose, the choice is the same: freedom, not tyranny; democracy, not dictatorship; the rule of law, not the rule of the secret police.
A beggar's book outworths a noble's blood.
Horror is always aware of its cause; terror never is. That is precisely what makes terror terrifying.
Like and equal are not the same thing at all. -- Meg Murray
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