To turn water into wine, and what is common into what is holy, is indeed the glory of Christianity.
Frederick William RobertsonRead
As the tree is fertilized by its own broken branches and fallen leaves, and grows out of its own decay, so men and nations are bettered and improved by trial, and refined out of broken hopes and blighted expectations.
Interpretation
Growth often comes from setbacks and failures.
This quote illustrates the idea that just as a tree can thrive from decay and what it sheds, individuals and societies also improve through their struggles and disappointments. It emphasizes that adversity and challenges are essential for personal and collective growth, teaching resilience and wisdom through the process of refinement from past failures.
In practice
During a motivational speech about overcoming challenges.
To turn water into wine, and what is common into what is holy, is indeed the glory of Christianity.
The one who will be found in trial capable of great acts of love is ever the one who is always doing considerate small ones.
No one can be great, or good, or happy except through the inward efforts of themselves.
In these two things the greatness of man consists, to have God dwelling in us as to impart His character to us, and to have Him dwelling in us, that we recognize His presence, and know that we are His, and He is ours. The one is salvation; the other, the assurance of it.
The office of poetry is not to make us think accurately, but feel truly.
There are three things in the world that deserve no mercy, hypocrisy, fraud, and tyranny.
When explorers first encountered my people, they called us heathens, sun worshippers. They didn't understand that the sun is a relative and illuminates our path on this earth.
If there was an observer on Mars, they would probably be amazed that we have survived this long.
If you admit that to silence your opponent by force_x000D_ is to win an intellectual argument,_x000D_ then you admit the right to silence people by force.
For discipline is imposed not just on oneself but on those in one's orbit.
The same words conceal and declare the thoughts of men.
The field of vision is comparable, for me, to the terrain of an archaeological dig. To see is to be on guard, to wait for what emerges from the background, without any name, without any particular interest: what was silent will speak, what is closed will open and will take on a voice.
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