Sweet is the voice of a sister in the season of sorrow.
Benjamin DisraeliRead
Moderation has been called a virtue to limit the ambition of great men, and to console undistinguished people for their want of fortune and their lack of merit.
Interpretation
Moderation serves to balance ambition and success, offering comfort to those who feel lesser.
This quote by Benjamin Disraeli suggests that moderation is not just a personal trait but also a societal tool that can restrict the drive of ambitious individuals, while simultaneously providing solace to those who may feel inadequate in comparison to the great achievers. It highlights the dual role of moderation in both encouraging humility among the successful and fostering acceptance among the less fortunate.
In practice
During a public speech about the importance of balance in life, one might say this quote to emphasize the need for moderation.
Sweet is the voice of a sister in the season of sorrow.
But what minutes! Count them by sensation, and not by calendars, and each moment is a day.
Grief is the agony of an instant. The indulgence of grief the blunder of a life.
Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.
Yes, I am a Jew and when the ancestors of the right honorable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon.
The practice of politics in the East may be defined by one word: dissimulation.
Can one drown in one's element... If fish can drown in water, can human beings suffocate in air?
If, indeed, a firearm were more dangerous to its possessors than to potential aggressors, would it not make sense for the government to arm all criminals, and let them accidentally shoot themselves? Is this absurd? Yes, and yet the government, of course, is arming criminals.
Human history is a Gaian dream.
If this were a fantasy world, there would be ten of me and we would each be doing what we wanted to do.
It may be that we have become so feckless as a people that we no longer care how things do work, but only what kind of quick, easy outer impression they give. If so, there is little hope for our cities or probably for much else in our society. But I do not think this is so.
One theory is that we will make war look so attractive that we undermine the deterrent. That's Never Never Land. What we have now would have been enough to deter Hitler. But we are talking in a different order of reality.
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