Nothing living should ever be treated with contempt. Whatever it is that lives, a man, a tree, or a bird, should be touched gently, because the time is short. Civilization is another word for respect for life.
Interpretation
All living beings deserve respect and gentle treatment, as life is precious and short.
Elizabeth Goudge emphasizes the importance of respecting all forms of life, whether human, animal, or plant. She suggests that contempt towards living beings is unacceptable and highlights that civilization is defined by our ability to show respect and kindness towards others, reminding us that life is fleeting and should be cherished.
In practice
A speaker at a wildlife conservation event might quote this to advocate for animal rights.
Tomorrow may never come to us. We do not live in tomorrow. We cannot find it in any of our title-deeds. The man who owns whole blocks of real estate, and great ships on the sea, does not own a single minute of tomorrow. Tomorrow! It is a mysterious possibility, not yet born. It lies under the seal of midnight-behind the veil of glittering constellations.
Just in the nick of time they realized that it was their own habitat they were wrecking -- that they weren't merely visitors.
Man can and does rationalize his sins. He finds reasons for all his weakness, invents excuses that first calm and then deaden his conscience. He blames God, society, education, and environment for his wrong doing.
Grace is not part of consciousness; it is the amount of light in our souls, not knowledge nor reason.
There was no such thing as perfect privacy, life was a perpetual concert-hall recital with a captive audience.
Good order results spontaneously when things are let alone
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