My life's work has been to prompt others and be forgotten. Remember that night when Christian came to your balcony? That moment sums up my life. While I was below in the shadows, others climbed up to kiss the sweet rose.
Interpretation
This quote reflects the idea of selflessly supporting others while remaining in the background, valuing their successes over personal recognition.
Cyrano De Bergerac expresses a profound sentiment about the nature of his life and legacy. He portrays a sense of fulfillment in facilitating the accomplishments of others, suggesting that his true passion lies in prompting and uplifting them, even if it means being forgotten himself. The metaphor of climbing up to kiss the rose implies that while he remains in the shadows, he finds joy in witnessing the beauty of others' achievements, thus encapsulating a noble philosophy of selflessness and quiet strength.
In practice
During a speech at a charity event, this quote can be used to highlight the importance of supporting others.
I planted my self in the middle of a great many Glasses full of Dew, tied fast about me, upon which the Sun so violently darted his Rays, that the Heat, which attracted them, as it does the thickest Clouds, carried me up so high, that at length I found my self above the middle Region of the Air.
A kiss is a rosy dot over the 'i' of loving.
Western laziness consists of cramming our lives with compulsive activity, so that there is no time at all to confront the real issues.
Compared to the unleashed forces of warfare and of faith, Mount Vesuvius was kinder to the legacy of antiquity.
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.
One might call habit a moral friction: something that prevents the mind from gliding over things but connects it with them and makes it hard for it to free itself from them.
You do not explain the tree by telling of the water it has drunk, the minerals it has absorbed, and the sunlight that strengthened it.
This revelation of the secrets of nature, long mercifully withheld from man, should arouse the most solemn reflections in the mind and conscience of every human being capable of comprehension. We must indeed pray that these awful agencies will be made to conduce to peace among the nations, and that instead of wreaking measureless havoc upon the entire globe, may become a perennial fountain of world prosperity.
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