O suffering, sad humanity! O ye afflicted ones, who lie Steeped to the lips in misery, Longing, yet afraid to die, Patient, though sorely tried!
What seems to us but dim funeral tapers may be heaven's distant lamps.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that what appears to us as mere darkness or loss may actually be guiding lights toward something greater beyond our understanding.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's quote conveys the idea that the struggles and challenges we perceive in life, represented metaphorically as 'dim funeral tapers,' can actually serve as guiding beacons, or 'heaven's distant lamps.' It encourages us to look beyond our immediate hardships and recognize that there may be a greater purpose or light that we cannot yet see, suggesting a sense of hope and perspective in the face of adversity.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a graduation speech, one might use this quote to inspire students facing uncertainties.
More from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
All quotes βThere are moments in life, when the heart is so full of emotion That if by chance it be shaken, or into its depths like a pebble Drops some careless word, it overflows, and its secret, Spilt on the ground like water, can never be gathered together.
Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.
To be seventy years old is like climbing the Alps. You reach a snow-crowned summit, and see behind you the deep valley stretching miles and miles away, and before you other summits higher and whiter, which you may have strength to climb, or may not. Then you sit down and meditate and wonder which it will be.
God is not dead; nor doth He sleep; ... _x000D_ The wrong shall fail,_x000D_ The right prevail,_x000D_ With peace on earth, good will to men.
In the long run men hit only what they aim at.
Similar quotes
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The steep ride up the and down the energy curve is the most abnormal thing that has ever happened in human history. Most of human history is a no-growth situation. Our culture is built on growth and that phase of human history is almost over and we are not prepared for it. Our biggest problem is not the end of our resources. That will be gradual. Our biggest problem is a cultural problem. We don't know how to cope with it.
The absurd is lucid reason noting its limits.
To place oneself in the position of God is painful: being God is equivalent to being tortured. For being God means that one is in harmony with all that is, including the worst. The existence of the worst evils is unimaginable unless God willed them.
We look for the Secret - the Philosopher's Stone, the Elixir of the Wise, Supreme Enlightenment, 'God' or whatever...and all the time it is carrying us about...It is the human nervous system itself.
I'm not sure I understand how responsibility for our choices makes sense if they are not determined.