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.
I have outlasted all desire, My dreams and I have grown apart; My grief alone is left entire, The gleamings of an empty heart. The storms of ruthless dispensation Have struck my flowery garland numb, I live in lonely desolation And wonder when my end will come. Thus on a naked tree-limb, blasted By tardy winter's whistling chill, A single leaf which has outlasted Its season will be trembling still.
One of the pitfalls of childhood is that one doesn't have to understand something to feel it. By the time the mind is able to comprehend what has happened, the wounds of the heart are already too deep.
An interest in the brain requires no justification other than a curiosity to know why we are here, what we are doing here, and where we are going.
There is but one Paris and however hard living may be here, and if it became worse and harder even—the French air clears up the brain and does good—a world of good.
Corporations take the humanity out of trade - they take the happiness out and replace it with something that is ugly.
And he could not tell why the struggle was worthwhile, why he had determined to use the utmost himself and his heritage from the personalities he had passed... He stretched out his arms to the crystalline, radiant sky. I know myself," he cried, "But that is all.
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