Gratitude is a nice touch of beauty added last of all to the countenance. Giving a classic beauty, an angelic loveliness, to the character.
Interpretation
Gratitude enhances one's character, adding beauty and charm to a person's demeanor.
The quote emphasizes the transformative power of gratitude, suggesting that it is the finishing touch that adds depth and attractiveness to a person's character. Just like a beautiful smile can enhance one's appearance, gratitude enriches our interactions and relationships, making a person more appealing and admirable.
In practice
In a speech about personal growth, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of cultivating gratitude.
A democracy,- that is a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people; of course, a government of the principles of eternal justice, the unchanging law of God; for shortness' sake I will call it the idea of Freedom.
Want and wealth equally harden the human heart, as frost and fire are both alien to the human flesh. Famine and gluttony alike drive away nature from the heart of man.
The books which help you most are those which make you think the most. The hardest way of learning is by easy reading; every man that tries it finds it so. But a great book that comes from a great thinker, β it is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth, with beauty too.
No man is so great as mankind.
Outward judgment often fails, inward judgment never.
You may not, cannot, appropriate beauty. It is the wealth of the eye, and a cat may gaze upon a king.
The most promising words ever written on the maps of human knowledge are terra incognita, unknown territory.
Of a truth, Knowledge is power, but it is a power reined by scruple, having a conscience of what must be and what may be. . . .
I've a theory that one can always get anything one wants if one will pay the price. And do you know what the price is, nine times out of ten? Compromise.
Ironically, in today's marketplace successful nonfiction has to be unbelievable, while successful fiction must be believable.
Certitude is not the test of certainty. We have been cocksure of many things that were not so.
As a mountain is unshaken by the wind, so the heart of a wise person is unmoved by all the changes on this earth.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.