Human beings are the only creatures who are allowed to fail. If an ant fails, it's dead. But we're allowed to learn from our mistakes and from our failures. And that's how I learn, by falling flat on my face and picking myself up and starting all over again.
Interpretation
Humans uniquely have the opportunity to learn from failure, unlike other creatures.
This quote emphasizes the intrinsic value of failure in human life. It highlights that while animals face immediate consequences for failure, humans have the capacity to learn and grow from their mistakes. The ability to fail and recover is portrayed as a vital part of the learning process, suggesting that resilience is an essential trait that allows us to develop and improve.
In practice
This quote can inspire students during a graduation speech to embrace mistakes as part of their learning journey.
Truth is what is true, and it's not necessarily factual. Truth and fact are not the same thing. Truth does not contradict or deny facts, but it goes through and beyond facts. This is something that it is very difficult for some people to understand. Truth can be dangerous.
George MacDonald gives me renewed strength during times of trouble--times when I have seen people tempted to deny God--when he says, "The Son of God suffered unto death, not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like his.
If you don't recount your family history, it will be lost. Honor your own stories and tell them too. The tales may not seem very important, but they are what binds families and makes each of us who we are.
I never want to lose the story-loving child within me, or the adolescent, or the young woman, or the middle-aged one, because all together they help me to be fully alive on this journey, and show me that I must be willing to go where it takes me, even through the valley of the shadow.
The minute we begin to think we have all the answers, we forget the questions.
When we believe in the impossible, it becomes possible, and we can do all kinds of extraordinary things.
You and you alone are responsible for taking actions to create the life of your dreams. Nobody else can (or will) do it for you.
You can always amend a big plan, but you can never expand a little one. I don't believe in little plans. I believe in plans big enough to meet a situation which we can't possibly foresee now.
Loyal and efficient work in a great cause, even though it may not be immediately recognized, ultimately bears fruit.
Every great batter works on the theory that the pitcher is more afraid of him than he is of the pitcher.
You take whatever works from wherever you can find it, and you keep moving toward the light.
How you see your future is much more important that what has happened in your past.
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