Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.
Robert Louis StevensonRead
If your morals make you dreary, depend on it, they are wrong.
Interpretation
Morals should bring joy and fulfillment; if they don't, they might be misguided.
This quote emphasizes that true morals should not lead to feelings of gloom or unease. Instead, they should inspire positivity and a sense of rightness within us. If adhering to certain morals causes dreariness, it suggests those morals might not be aligned with our true values and understanding of life.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a discussion about ethical dilemmas to emphasize the importance of joyful morals.
Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.
Like a bird singing in the rain, let grateful memories survive in time of sorrow.
That man is a success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much.
His past was fairly blameless; few men could read the rolls of their life with less apprehension; yet he was humbled to the dust by the many ill things he had done, and raised up again into sober and fearful gratitude by the many he had come so near to doing, yet avoided.
The habit of being happy enables one to be freed, or largely freed, from the domination of outward conditions.
It is the history of our kindnesses that alone make this world tolerable. If it were not for that, for the effect of kind words, kind looks, kind letters . . . I should be inclined to think our life a practical jest in the worst possible spirit.
Now, five years is nothing in a man's life except when he is very young and very old... - Wang Lung
Isn't it funny how something that will later be a blessing can be a curse if you get it too soon.
Young people, nowadays, imagine that money is everything. Yes, murmured Lord Henry, settling his button-hole in his coat; and when they grow older they know it.
You've got your passion. You've got your pride. But don't you know that only fools are satisfied? Dream on, but don't imagine they'll all come true.
Manners must adorn knowledge and smooth its way in the world, without them it is like a great rough diamond, very well in a closet by way of curiosity, and also for its intrinsic value; but most prized when polished.
It could be that one of the greatest hindrances to evangelism is the poverty of our own experience.
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