Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty.
Interpretation
Endurance and patience are more admirable virtues than mere physical strength and beauty.
This quote by John Ruskin emphasizes that true nobility lies in the qualities of endurance and patience, which are often more difficult to cultivate than superficial attributes like strength and beauty. It suggests that character and the ability to persevere through challenges are of greater value than superficial appearances or raw power.
In practice
In a motivational speech about resilience in tough times.
In health of mind and body, men should see with their own eyes, hear and speak without trumpets, walk on their feet, not on wheels, and work and war with their arms, not with engine-beams, nor rifles warranted to kill twenty men at a shot before you can see them.
You talk of the scythe of Time, and the tooth of Time: I tell you, Time is scytheless and toothless; it is we who gnaw like the worm - we who smite like the scythe. It is ourselves who abolish - ourselves who consume: we are the mildew, and the flame.
To be able to ask a question clearly is two-thirds of the way to getting it answered.
See that your children be taught, not only the labors of the earth, but the loveliness of it.
A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money.
When men do not love their hearth, nor reverence their thresholds, it is a sign that they have dishonoured both ... Our God is a house-hold God, as well as a heavenly one; He has an altar in every man's dwelling.
Genius is always allowed some leeway, once the hammer has been pried from its hands and the blood has been cleaned up.
If you were going to be successful in the world of crime, you needed a reputation for honesty.
When you're full of yourself, God can't fill you. But when you empty yourself, God has a useful vessel.
We are all important, but we are not indispensable.
We often need to lose sight of our priorities in order to see them.
The only thing over which you have complete right of control at all times is your mental attitude.
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