How dull it is to pause, to make an end, to rust unburnished, not to shine in use! As though to breathe were life.
Interpretation
Life is meant to be lived actively and purposefully rather than passively.
In this quote, Alfred Lord Tennyson emphasizes the importance of living life to the fullest, suggesting that simply existing without action or purpose is not truly living. He criticizes stagnation and encourages individuals to seek out experiences and to shine through their actions, implying that vitality comes from engagement and endeavor rather than mere existence.
In practice
This quote could be used in a motivational speech to inspire an audience to take action in their lives.
Twilight and evening bell, And after that the dark! And may there be no sadness of farewell, When I embark; For though from out our bourne of Time and Place The flood may bear me far, I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I have crossed the bar.
How many a father have I seen, A sober man, among his boys, Whose youth was full of foolish noise.
O Love! what hours were thine and mine, In lands of palm and southern pine; In lands of palm, of orange-blossom, Of olive, aloe, and maize and vine!
Earth is dry to the centre,_x000D_ But spring, a new comer,_x000D_ A spring rich and strange,_x000D_ Shall make the winds blow_x000D_ Round and round,_x000D_ Thro' and thro',_x000D_ Here and there,_x000D_ Till the air_x000D_ And the ground_x000D_ Shall be fill'd with life anew.
O love, O fire! once he drew With one long kiss my whole soul through My lips, as sunlight drinketh dew.
But thy strong Hours indignant work’d their wills, And beat me down and marr’d and wasted me, And tho’ they could not end me, left me maim’d To dwell in presence of immortal youth, Immortal age beside immortal youth, And all I was, in ashes. - Tithonus
Radar revs the engine as to say hustle, and we are running through the parking lot, Ben's robe flowing in the wind so that he looks vaguely like a dark wizard, except that his pale skinny legs are visible, and his arms hug plastic bags. I can see the back of Lacey's legs beneath her dress, her calves tight in midstride. I don't know how I look, but I know how I feel: Young. Goofy. Infinite.
True and false fears let us refrain, Let us love nobly, and live, and add again Years and years unto years, till we attain To write threescore ; this is the second of our reign.
I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in life.
You can not have significance in this life if it is all about you. You get your significance, you find your joy in life through service and sacrifice - it's pure and simple.
Before undergoing a surgical operation, arrange your temporal affairs. You may live.
He drank too much when he could get it, ate too much when it was there, talked too much all the time.
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