I didn't want to be a boy, ever, but I was outraged that his height and intelligence were graces for him and gaucheries for me.
Jane RuleRead
It's not the length but the quality of life that matters to me. It has always been important to me to write one sentence at a time, to live every day as if it were my last and judge it in those terms, often badly, not because it lacked grand gesture or grand passion but because it failed in the daily virtues of self-discipline, kindness, and laughter. It is love, very ordinary, human love, and not fear, which is the good teacher and the wisest judge.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Quality of life is more important than its length, focusing on daily virtues and the importance of love.
In this quote, Jane Rule emphasizes that the quality of one's life, characterized by daily virtues such as self-discipline, kindness, and laughter, holds greater significance than simply living a long life. She suggests that it is love, rather than fear, that guides us and helps us evaluate our lives positively, encouraging a mindful and compassionate approach to everyday living.
Themes
QualityLifeLoveVirtuesWisdom
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about living a fulfilling life, this quote could be used to inspire the audience to focus on daily virtues.
More from Jane Rule
All quotes →I've never been resigned to ready-made ideas as I was to ready-made clothes, perhaps because although I couldn't sew, I could think.
Jane RuleRead
Coming out, all the way out, is offered more and more as the political solution to our oppression.
Jane RuleRead
Similar quotes
It was a marvelous night, the sort of night one only experiences when one is young. The sky was so bright, and there were so many stars that, gazing upward, one couldn't help wondering how so many whimsical, wicked people could live under such a sky.
Fyodor DostoevskyRead
Most people spend their entire lives on a fantasy island called 'Someday I'll.'
Denis WaitleyRead
Whether you're trying to learn in hockey or trying to learn in life, I've always tried to be observant and tried to learn more, tried to evolve, whether it's as a hockey player or as a person. With each year, I try to do that.
Sidney CrosbyRead
Consider a man riding a bicycle. Whoever he is, we can say three things about him. We know he got on the bicycle and started to move. We know that at some point he will stop and get off. Most important of all, we know that if at any point between the beginning and the end of his journey he stops moving and does not get off the bicycle he will fall off it. That is a metaphor for the journey through life of any living thing, and I think of any society of living things.
William GoldingRead
Youth is a blunder; Manhood a struggle, Old Age a regret.
Benjamin DisraeliRead
When you're eighteen your emotions are violent, but they're not durable.
W. Somerset MaughamRead