Ponder the fact that God has made you a gardener, to root out vice and plant virtue.
St. Catherine Of SienaRead
It is only through shadows that one comes to know the light.
Interpretation
Understanding and appreciating the good in life often requires experiencing challenges and hardships.
This quote by St. Catherine Of Siena conveys the idea that without experiencing difficulties, one cannot fully appreciate the joys and positive aspects of life. The metaphor of 'shadows' represents struggles or dark times, while 'light' symbolizes knowledge, happiness, or enlightenment. Together, they imply that adversity is essential for growth and understanding, illuminating the path to a more profound wisdom and appreciation of life's brighter moments.
In practice
In a motivational speech about overcoming challenges.
Ponder the fact that God has made you a gardener, to root out vice and plant virtue.
When it seems that God shows us the faults of others, keep on the safer side-it may be that your judgment is false. On your lips let silence abide. And any vice that you may ascribe to others, ascribe at once to them and yourself, in true humility. If that vice really exists in a person, he will correct himself better, seeing himself so gently understood, and will say of his own accord the thing that you would have said to him.
O unfathomable depth! O Deity eternal! O deep ocean! What more could You give me than to give me Yourself?
To a brave man, good and bad luck are like his left and right hand. He uses both.
There is no perfect virtue-none that bears fruit- unless it is exercised by means of our neighbor.
Eternal Trinity... mystery deep as the sea, You could give me no greater gift than the gift of Yourself. For You are a fire ever burning and never consumed, which itself consumes all the selfish love that fills my being.
There's no one with intelligence in this town except that man over there playing with the children, the one riding the stick horse. He has keen, fiery insight and vast dignity like the night sky, but he conceals it in the madness of child's play.
Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.
A holy life will produce the deepest impression. Lighthouses blow no horns; they only shine.
Many of us spend half of our time wishing for things we could have if we didn't spend half our time wishing.
Keeing busy" is the remedy for all the ills in America. It's also the means by which the creative impulse is destroyed.
If you're going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you're going to be locked up.
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