What I'd like is to meet a man I could take off my hat to and say: "Thank you for having got born, and the longer you live the better.
Maxim GorkyRead
If it is true that only misfortune can awaken a man's soul, it is a bitter truth, one that is hard to hear and accept, and it is only natural that many people deny it and say it is better for a man to live on in a trance than to wake up to torture.
Interpretation
Misfortune can lead to self-awareness and growth, though it is a painful truth.
This quote by Maxim Gorky reflects on the nature of suffering and enlightenment, suggesting that often it is through adversity that individuals become truly aware of their own existence and deeper emotional truths. While acknowledging the difficulty of this experience, it critiques the tendency to avoid pain, implying that ignorance may offer temporary comfort but denies one the authentic experience of life.
In practice
During a motivational speech about resilience, this quote can emphasize the importance of facing challenges.
What I'd like is to meet a man I could take off my hat to and say: "Thank you for having got born, and the longer you live the better.
A good man can be stupid and still be good. But a bad man must have brains.
To speak the truth is the most difficult of all arts, for in its "pure" form, not connected with the interests of individuals, groups, classes, or nations, truth is almost completely unsuitable for use by the Philistine and is unacceptable to him.
Be good, be kind, be humane, and charitable; love your fellows; console the afflicted; pardon those who have done you wrong.
Truth doesn't always heal a wounded soul.
Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is.
People count with self-satisfaction the number of times they have recited the name of God on their prayer beads, but they keep no beads for reckoning the number of idle words they speak.
There are two stories for every life; the one you live & the one others tell
It's useful to go out of this world and see it from the perspective of another one.
I am so afraid of people's words.They describe so distinctly everything: And this they call dog and that they call house, here the start and there the end. I worry about their mockery with words, they know everything, what will be, what was; no mountain is still miraculous; and their house and yard lead right up to God. I want to warn and object: Let the things be! I enjoy listening to the sound they are making. But you always touch: and they hush and stand still. That's how you kill.
It's a tragedy, in a way, that Americans are brought up to think that they cannot feel for other people and other beings just because they are different. They think they're different. It's very limiting.
Whether I'm wearing lots of makeup or no makeup, I'm always the same person inside.
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