O suffering, sad humanity! O ye afflicted ones, who lie Steeped to the lips in misery, Longing, yet afraid to die, Patient, though sorely tried!
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowRead
Like a French poem is life; being only perfect in structure when with the masculine rhymes mingled the feminine are.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Life achieves perfection when there is a harmonious balance between contrasting elements.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's quote compares life to a French poem, suggesting that just as a poem is beautifully crafted through the blend of masculine and feminine rhymes, so too is life enriched through the diversity and balance of different elements. This balance is crucial for achieving a fuller, more nuanced experience in life, where contrasting ideas and qualities harmoniously coexist to create something profound and beautiful.
Themes
LifeBalanceHarmonyContrastPoem
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion about life's complexities, this quote can highlight the importance of balance in diverse opinions.
More from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
All quotes βThere are moments in life, when the heart is so full of emotion That if by chance it be shaken, or into its depths like a pebble Drops some careless word, it overflows, and its secret, Spilt on the ground like water, can never be gathered together.
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowRead
Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowRead
To be seventy years old is like climbing the Alps. You reach a snow-crowned summit, and see behind you the deep valley stretching miles and miles away, and before you other summits higher and whiter, which you may have strength to climb, or may not. Then you sit down and meditate and wonder which it will be.
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowRead
God is not dead; nor doth He sleep; ... _x000D_ The wrong shall fail,_x000D_ The right prevail,_x000D_ With peace on earth, good will to men.
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowRead
In the long run men hit only what they aim at.
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowRead
Similar quotes
Golf is like life in a lot of ways - All the biggest wounds are self-inflicted.
William J. ClintonRead
The world is not a wish-granting factory.
John GreenRead
There are two things in life you cannot choose. The first is your enemies; the second your family. Sometimes the difference between them is hard to see, but in the end time will show you that the cards you have been dealt could always have been worse.
Carlos Ruiz ZafonRead
There is a moment of conception and a moment of birth, but between them there is a long period of gestation.
Jonas SalkRead
It's only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth - and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up, we will then begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had.
Elisabeth Kubler-RossRead
That's what happens when you're thirty-seven years old: you do the things you always did but the result is somehow different.
Michael LewisRead