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?
Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.
I think I'm attracted to subjects that I'm afraid of. It's a way to approach things I am afraid of, things that bring fear in my heart, and try to understand them, try to deal with them. It's like demons. I try to approach it and understand it... I'm just visiting fears.
You can't hold back. You can't think of the subtleties of playing. You just have to get out and really bare it all, and hopefully you don't fall off the plank. And if you do, hey, pick yourself up, dust yourself down, and start all over again.
I was scared many times on Everest, but this is all part of the challenge. When I fell down a crevasse, it was pretty scary.
The wheelchair and the prosthesis give me a soapbox to stand on. If it helps me get my message across, I'm glad; then we need to talk about what we need to do for this country.
If all that Americans want is security, they can go to prison. They'll have enough to eat, a bed and a roof over their heads. But if an American wants to preserve his dignity and his equality as a human being, he must not bow his neck to any dictatorial government.
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