There is nothing so fleeting as the memory of benefits received.
Interpretation
Memories of kindness and benefits are easily forgotten over time.
This quote suggests that while people may express gratitude for the help or benefits they receive, such memories tend to fade quickly. It reflects on human nature and the tendency to take kindness for granted, emphasizing the transient nature of appreciation and the importance of recognizing and valuing support as it occurs.
In practice
Using this quote in a speech about the importance of remembrance in relationships.
If you attempt certain things at the right time, they are easy to accomplish - in fact, they almost get done by themselves. If you undertake them before the time is right, not only will they fail, but they will often become impossible to accomplish even when the time would have been right.
Conspiracies, since they cannot be engaged in without the fellowship of others, are for that reason most perilous; for as most men are either fools or knaves, we run excessive risk in making such folk our companions.
He who imitates what is evil always goes beyond the example that is set; on the contrary, he who imitates what is good always falls short.
Let no one trust so entirely to natural prudence as to persuade himself that it will suffice to guide him without help from experience.
Few revolutions succeed, and when they do, you often discover they did not gain what you hoped for, and you condemn yourself to perpetual fear, as the parties you defeated may always regain power and work for your ruin.
One who imitates what is bad always goes beyond his model; while one who imitates what is good always comes up short of it.
Our world, like a charnel-house, is strewn with the detritus of dead epochs.
It gripped her hand gently. 'Regret is for humans,' it said. She laughed. 'Really?' The machine shrugged and let go of her hand. 'Oh, no. It's just something we tell ourselves.
Surrender is not something that you can do. If you do it, it is not surrender, because the doer is there. Surrender is a great understanding that, "I am not." Surrender is an insight that the ego exists not, that, "I am not separate." Surrender is not an act but an understanding.
Revenge, lust, ambition, pride, and self-will are too often exalted as the gods of man's idolatry; while holiness, peace, contentment, and humility are viewed as unworthy of a serious thought.
It's the dualistic ways of looking at things that produces the evil.
This is the most immediate fruit of exile, of uprooting: the prevalence of the unreal over the real. Everyone dreamed past and future dreams, of slavery and redemption, of improbable paradises, of equally mythical and improbable enemies; cosmic enemies, perverse and subtle, who pervade everything like the air.
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