A million candles have burned themselves out. Still I read on. (Montresor)
Interpretation
The relentless pursuit of knowledge persists despite the challenges or sacrifices involved.
This quote illustrates the idea that the quest for understanding and wisdom is a journey that continues regardless of the hardships or consequences one may face. The imagery of 'a million candles' burning out highlights the transient nature of resources, yet the determination to keep seeking knowledge remains undeterred.
In practice
During a graduation speech to encourage graduates to continue their pursuit of knowledge.
But evil things, in robes of sorrow, Assailed the monarch's high estate; (Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow Shall dawn upon him desolate!) And round about his home the glory That blushed and bloomed, Is but a dim-remembered story Of the old time entombed.
Most writers - poets in especial - prefer having it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy - an ecstatic intuition - and would positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the scenes.
...the agony of my soul found vent in one loud, long and final scream of despair.
Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best have gone to their eternal rest.
I could have clasped the red walls to my bosom as a garment of eternal peace. "Death," I said, "any death but that of the pit!" Fool! might I have not known that into the pit it was the object of the burning iron to urge me?
In our endeavors to recall to memory something long forgotten, we often find ourselves upon the very verge of remembrance, without being able, in the end, to remember.
Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.
There are too many ideas and things and people. Too many directions to go. I was starting to believe the reason it matters to care passionately about something, is that it whittles the world down to a more manageable size.
Do you prefer that you be right or happy?
The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.
Character cannot be summoned at the moment of crisis if it has been squandered by years of compromise and rationalization. The only testing ground for the heroic is the mundane. The only preparation for that one profound decision which can change a life, or even a nation, is those hundreds of half-conscious, self defining, seemingly insignificant decisions made in private. Habit is the daily battleground of character.
since the thing perhaps is to eat flowers and not to be afraid
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