No horse gets anywhere until he is harnessed. No stream or gas drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined.
Interpretation
Discipline and focus are essential to achieving greatness in life.
This quote conveys that in order to achieve significant accomplishments and greatness, one must exercise focus, dedication, and discipline. Just as a horse must be harnessed, or a powerful stream must be confined to generate energy, individuals must channel their efforts towards their goals to grow and succeed.
In practice
A motivational speaker could use this quote to encourage students to stay dedicated to their studies.
Nothing else matters much...not wealth, nor learning, nor even health...without this gift: the spiritual capacity to keep zest in living. This is the creed of creeds, the final deposit and distillation of all important faiths: that you should be able to believe in life.
No one can get inner peace by pouncing on it, by vigorously willing to have it ... Peace is a consciousness of springs too deep for earthly droughts to dry up. Peace is the gift not of volitional struggle but of spiritual hospitality.
I renounce war for its consequences, for the lies it lives on and propagates, for the undying hatred it arouses, for the dictatorships it puts in place of democracy, for the starvation that stalks after it. I renounce war, and never again, directly or indirectly, will I sanction or support another.
He who cannot rest, cannot work; he who cannot let go, cannot hold on; he who cannot find footing, cannot go forward.
Nothing in this world is more inspiring than a soul up against crippling circumstances who carries it off with courage and faith and undefeated character-nothing! See Light From Many Lamps, edited by L. E. Watson, article by H. E. Fosdick, pp. 93-94 re: a serious cripple who succeeded.
Money is a miraculous thing. It is your personal energy reduced to a portable form and endowed with power you yourself do not possess. It can go where you cannot go; speak languages you cannot speak; lift burdens you cannot touch with your fingers; save lives with which you cannot deal directly.
Pursue something so important that even if you fail, the world is better off with you having tried.
It's hard, when you're up to your armpits in alligators, to remember you came here to drain the swamp.
Whenever there is a challenge, there is also an opportunity to face it, to demonstrate and develop our will and determination.
Desire that your life count for something great! Long for your life to have eternal significance. Want this! Don’t coast through life without a passion.
I was in the projects dreaming about doing music and now I've done music. When I had nothing to when I had something I still have this driving force that's fueling me every day and that's making ideas reality.
Persistence, persistence, and persistence. The Power can be created and maintained through daily practice - continuous effort.
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