Tis not, 'my country right or wrong'; tis, 'my country, that which is right to be kept right, that which is wrong to be set right'
Carl SchurzRead
Ideals are like the stars: we never reach them, but like the mariners of the sea, we chart our course by them.
Interpretation
Ideals guide us, even if we can't fully attain them.
This quote by Carl Schurz uses the metaphor of stars to illustrate how ideals serve as guiding principles in our lives. Although we may never fully reach these ideals, they help us navigate our choices and direction, much like sailors rely on stars to find their way across the ocean.
In practice
This quote can be used in a motivational speech to inspire people to set high goals.
But they who give straight judgements to strangers and to those of the land and do not transgress what is just, for them the city flourishes and its people prosper.
The intellectual who wants to do her work properly must today go back to the starting point: the woman whom she knows, and first of all to herself. It is at that level, and at no other, that she ought to begin to think about the world situation.
Everything you do is right, nothing you do is wrong, yet you must still make ceaseless effort.
I just don't think of age and time in respect of years. I have too much experience of people in their seventies who are vigorous and useful and people who are thirty-five who are in lousy physical shape and can't think straight. I don't think age has that much to do with it.
It's hard not to empathize with the mayor's anger, given the injustices he'd suffered, but righteous anger rarely leads to wise policy.
If you would listen, sir, in the sense of being aware of your conflicts and contradictions without forcing them into any particular pattern of thought, perhaps they might altogether cease.
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