We gain the strength of the temptation we resist.
Interpretation
Resisting temptation builds our strength and character.
This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson suggests that the challenges we face and the temptations we choose to resist contribute to our personal growth and resilience. Each time we resist an urge, we reinforce our ability to make choices aligned with our values and goals, thereby becoming stronger individuals.
In practice
In a motivational speech about personal development.
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
The world belongs to the energetic.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
If a man does not talk to himself, it is because he is not worth talking to.
I've always had a weakness for lost causes once they're really lost.
Whoever travels without a guide, needs two hundred years for a two-day journey.
The humblest praise most, while cranks & malcontents praise least. Praise almost seems to be inner health made audible
An ounce of heart knowledge is worth a ton of head learning.
Young people, nowadays, imagine that money is everything. Yes, murmured Lord Henry, settling his button-hole in his coat; and when they grow older they know it.
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