I would rather live a short life of glory than a long one of obscurity.
Alexander The GreatRead
A tomb now suffices him for whom the whole world was not sufficient.
Interpretation
One's achievements and power are meaningless in the face of death.
This quote by Alexander the Great reflects on the futility of material success and worldly power when faced with mortality. Despite conquering vast territories and being revered as one of the greatest leaders in history, the ultimate end for everyone, including him, is death, which renders all worldly accomplishments insignificant.
In practice
During a speech on the importance of humility in success.
I would rather live a short life of glory than a long one of obscurity.
Are you still to learn that the end and perfection of our victories is to avoid the vices and infirmities of those whom we subdue?
Now you fear punishment and beg for your lives, so I will let you free, if not for any other reason so that you can see the difference between a Greek king and a barbarian tyrant, so do not expect to suffer any harm from me. A king does not kill messengers.
In the end, when it's over, all that matters is what you've done.
But truly, if I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.
I am dying with the help of too many physicians.
Our knowledge of God is perfected by gratiitude: we are thankful and rejoice in the experience of the truth that He is love.
Of all the creatures that man kills for his amusement there is only one that he kills out of hatred—other men. Man hates nothing as much as himself. That is why war is called the leprosy of the human soul.
When there are no gas chambers, no barbed wire, and no concentration camps, many don't recognize the perpetration of new genocides and other targeted mass atrocity crimes because they may not look the same.
I almost think that hope is for the soul what breathing is for the living organism. Where hope is lacking the soul dries up and withers.
The Christian faith does not call for us to put our minds on the shelf, to fly in the face of common sense and history, or to make a leap of faith into the dark. The rational person, fully apprised of the evidence, can confidently believe.
Death is not a tragedy to the one who dies; to have wasted the life before that death, that is the tragedy.
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