The earth has grown old with its burden of care, But at Christmas it always is young.
We anticipate a time when the love of truth shall have come up to our love of liberty, and men shall be cordially tolerant and earnest believers both at once.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses the hope for a harmonious balance between the pursuit of truth and the value of freedom, leading to mutual tolerance and sincere belief.
Phillips Brooks envisions a future where society holds a deep love for truth that matches their love for liberty. In this ideal world, individuals will not only passionately pursue truth but will also embrace tolerance towards differing beliefs. This dual commitment would foster a more understanding and accepting society, where earnest belief does not conflict with the freedom to hold varying perspectives.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech about the importance of democracy and open dialogue, this quote could inspire attendees to embrace diversity of thought.
More from Phillips Brooks
All quotes βWe never become truly spiritual by sitting down and wishing to become so. You must undertake something so great that you cannot accomplish it unaided.
The truest help we can render an afflicted man is not to take his burden from him, but to call out his best energy, that he may be able to bear the burden.
To believe in the God over us and around us and not in the God within us - that would be a powerless and fruitless faith.
To say, 'well done' to any bit of good work is to take hold of the powers which have made the effort and strengthen them beyond our knowledge.
Think of life as a voyage. The truest liver of the truest life is like a voyager who, as he sails, is not indifferent to all the beauty of the sea around him.
Similar quotes
LSD, yeah, the big parade β everybody's doin' it now. Take LSD, then you are a poet, an intellectual. What a sick mob. I am building a machine gun in my closet now to take out as many of them as I can before they get me.
Lies 1: There is only the present and nothing to remember. Lies 2: Time is a straight line. Lies 3: The difference between the past and the futures is that one has happened while the other has not. Lies 4: We can only be in one place at a time. Lies 5: Any proposition that contains the word 'finite' (the world, the universe, experience, ourselves...) Lies 6: Reality as something which can be agreed upon. Lies 7: Reality is truth.
The weight of the world is on our shoulders, its vision is through our eyes; if we blink or look aside, or turn back to finger what Plato said or remember Napoleon and his conquests, we inflict on the world the injury of some obliquity. This is life.
For many of the world's conflicts, it is difficult even to conjure up a feasible settlement.
There is nothing one fears more or is more ashamed of than not being oneself. Yet few people realize even an approximation of their true potential. Most people must live with varying degrees of the shame and fear of not being fully in control of themselves.
Let us think of people as starting life with an experience they forget and ending it with one which they anticipate but cannot understand.