Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that excessive focus on material acquisition diminishes our true potential.
In this quote, Wordsworth expresses a critical view of how modern society prioritizes consumption and materialism at the cost of our deeper abilities and human experience. He implies that by getting and spending, we waste not only our resources but also our creative and spiritual powers, diverting our attention from more meaningful pursuits.
In practice
In a discussion about minimalism and personal fulfillment.
For mightier far_x000D_ _x000D_ Than strength of nerve or sinew, or the sway_x000D_ _x000D_ Of magic potent over sun and star,_x000D_ _x000D_ Is love, though oft to agony distrest,_x000D_ _x000D_ And though his favourite be feeble woman's breast.
By all means sometimes be alone; salute thyself; see what thy soul doth wear; dare to look in thy chest; and tumble up and down what thou findest there.
There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,_x000D_ _x000D_ The earth, and every common sight,_x000D_ _x000D_ To me did seem_x000D_ _x000D_ Apparelled in celestial light,_x000D_ _x000D_ The glory and the freshness of a dream.
Books are yours, Within whose silent chambers treasure lies Preserved from age to age; more precious far Than that accumulated store of gold And orient gems, which, for a day of need, The Sultan hides deep in ancestral tombs. These hoards of truth you can unlock at will.
The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon; The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers; For this, for everything, we are out of tune.
Shalt show us how divine a thing A woman may be made.
We laugh at the efforts of the musk deer to find the source of the scent which comes from itself and despair at our efforts to find the peace which is our essence.
In a man devoted to knowledge, pity seems almost ridiculous, like delicate hands on a cyclops.
Compassion being action without motive, without self-interest, without any sense of fear, without any sense of pleasure.
Faith is being loyal to you unseen reality within
The pioneers and missionaries of religion have been the real cause of more trouble and war than all other classes of mankind.
Grace means undeserved kindness. It is the gift of God to man the moment he sees he is unworthy of God's favor.
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