Pleasures, riches, honor and joy are sure to have care, disgrace, adversity and affliction in their train. There is no pleasure without pain, no joy without sorrow. O the folly of expecting lasting felicity in a vale of tears, or a paradise in a ruined world.
Interpretation
True happiness and pleasure often come with challenges and pain.
This quote emphasizes the inseparable relationship between joy and sorrow, suggesting that every positive experience is accompanied by potential hardships. It reminds us of the inherent struggles in life and cautions against the unrealistic expectation of constant happiness in a world filled with difficulties.
In practice
In a motivational speech about resilience during tough times.
Why should not every individual man have existed more than once upon this world? Why should I not come back as often as I am capable of acquiring fresh knowledge? Is this hypothesis so laughable merely because it is the oldest? Because the human understanding, before the sophistries of the schools had dissipated and debilitated it, lighted upon it at once?
The search for truth is more precious than its possession.
A heretic is a man who sees with his own eyes
Absolute truth belongs to Thee alone.
Would that we could at once paint with the eyes! In the long way from the eye through the arm to the pencil, how much is lost!
It is not the truth that a man possesses, or believes that he possesses, but the earnest effort which he puts forward to reach the truth, which constitutes the worth of a man
Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom - and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.
I always tell young girls, surround yourself with goodness. I learned early on how to get the haters out of my life.
From the highest god to the meanest grass, the same power is present in all - whether manifested or not. We shall have to call forth that power by going from door to door.
there is no reason why anyone should understand how it works… and of course no reason why anyone should care … unless you are curious, in which case I love you, for curiosity about the world and all its corners is a beautiful thing.
With how many things are we on the brink of becoming acquainted, if cowardice or carelessness did not restrain our inquiries.
Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.
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