In skating over thin ice our safety is in our speed.
Interpretation
Taking risks requires decisiveness and confidence in your actions.
This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson emphasizes that in situations that are precarious or uncertain, such as skating over thin ice, the best approach is to act swiftly and with confidence. Hesitation can lead to danger; therefore, moving quickly can often ensure safety and success, reflecting a broader principle about life where fear must be met with proactive measures.
In practice
During a motivational speech to encourage students to pursue their dreams.
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 this be treason, make the most of it!
People of color have to do this work as a mater of everyday survival. And so long as they have to, who am I to act as if I have a choice in the matter? Especially when my future and that of my children in large part depends on the eradication of racism? There is no choice.
It is in the power of everybody, with a little courage, to hold out a hand to someone different, to listen, to attempt to increase, by even a tiny amount, the quantity of kindness and humanity in the world.
Courage is being scared to death... and saddling up anyway.
I ain't going to jail no more. The only_x000D_ way we gonna stop them white men from whuppin' us is to take over._x000D_ What we gonna start sayin' now is Black Power!
I'm a 34-year-old NBA center. I'm black. And I'm gay. I didn't set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I'm happy to start the conversation. I wish I wasn't the kid in the classroom raising his hand and saying, "I'm different." If I had my way, someone else would have already done this. Nobody has, which is why I'm raising my hand.
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