Go forward with joyful confidence.
George EliotRead
I care only to know, if possible, the lasting meaning that lies in all religious doctrine from the beginning till now.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of understanding the core and enduring truths found in religious teachings throughout history.
George Eliot reflects on the quest for knowledge and understanding of the lasting significance of religious doctrines from their inception to the present day. This pursuit reveals a deeper examination of the principles that have guided human beliefs and moral frameworks over time, highlighting the common threads that unite various faiths in their search for meaning.
In practice
In a speech about interfaith dialogue, I might start with this quote to emphasize the unity in religious beliefs.
Go forward with joyful confidence.
You must love your work, and not be always looking over the edge of it, wanting your play to begin. And the other is, you must not be ashamed of your work, and think it would be more honorable to you to be doing something else. You must have a pride in your own work and in learning to do it well.
She thought it was part of the hardship of her life that there was laid upon her the burthen of larger wants than others seemed to feel – that she had to endure this wide hopeless yearning for that something, whatever it was, that was greatest and best on this earth.
Life seems to go on without effort when I am filled with music.
I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.
Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them: they can be injured by us, they can be wounded; they know all our penitence, all our aching sense that their place is empty, all the kisses we bestow on the smallest relic of their presence.
The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty—it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There’s a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.
American writers often say they find it difficult to write Superman. They say he's too powerful; you can't give him problems. But Superman is a metaphor. For me, Superman has the same problems we do, but on a Paul Bunyan scale. If Superman walks the dog, he walks it around the asteroid belt because it can fly in space. When Superman's relatives visit, they come from the 31st century and bring some hellish monster conqueror from the future. But it's still a story about your relatives visiting.
Cynicism means the conduit to the soul has a great kink in it, like a garden hose in which nothing flows in either direction.
When you step further into the story you came to live, not only does the mythic territory open, but the deep self moves and the world of imagination and meaning comes towards you.
Most of us, if we're not careful, tend to dehumanize the enemy.
National pride is to countries what self-respect is to individuals: a necessary condition for self-improvement.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.