Love built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies.
John DonneRead
How much shall I be changed, before I am changed!
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the nature of personal transformation and identity amidst changes.
John Donne's quote encapsulates the inner conflict of self-perception during periods of change. It questions the extent to which one must alter their identity or beliefs in response to external transformations, provoking thought about the balance between adaptation and the preservation of one's core self.
In practice
In a motivational speech about embracing personal growth.
Love built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies.
Reason is our soul's left hand, Faith her right, By these we reach divinity
All occasions invite His mercies, and all times are His seasons.
If poisonous minerals, and if that tree, Whose fruit threw death on else immortal us, If lecherous goats, if serpents envious Cannot be damned; alas; why should I be?
Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
I call not that virginity a virtue, which resideth onely in the bodies integrity; much less if it be with a purpose of perpetually keeping it: for then it is a most inhumane vice. - But I call that Virginity a virtue which is willing and desirous to yield it self upon honest and lawfull terms, when just reason requireth; and until then, is kept with a modest chastity of body and mind.
A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.
Again and again in history some people wake up. They have no ground in the crowd and move to broader deeper laws. They carry strange customs with them and demand room for bold and audacious action. The future speaks ruthlessly through them. They change the world.
I have seen such an immense change from the total repression and criminality of homosexuality in my lifetime. It does make me much more buoyant and optimistic about the future. If that change can occur in that time there's hope for many other changes.
You should never hesitate to trade your cow for a handful of magic beans.
Let's say there are prospects for a new Nigeria, but I don't think we have a new Nigeria yet.
I really see no other solution than to turn inwards and to root out all the rottenness there. I no longer believe that we can change anything in the world until we first change ourselves. And that seems to me the only lesson to be learned.
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