Go forward with joyful confidence.
George EliotRead
Our words have wings, but fly not where we would.
Interpretation
Our words have the power to influence, but often do not reach their intended destination.
This quote by George Eliot suggests that while our words can soar and carry meaning, they do not always convey our true intentions or impact others as we hope. It reflects on the limitations of communication, implying that the messages we express may not always land effectively with our audience, leading to misunderstandings or unintended consequences.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of clear communication, one might quote George Eliot to highlight the challenges of ensuring one's message is understood.
Go forward with joyful confidence.
You must love your work, and not be always looking over the edge of it, wanting your play to begin. And the other is, you must not be ashamed of your work, and think it would be more honorable to you to be doing something else. You must have a pride in your own work and in learning to do it well.
She thought it was part of the hardship of her life that there was laid upon her the burthen of larger wants than others seemed to feel β that she had to endure this wide hopeless yearning for that something, whatever it was, that was greatest and best on this earth.
Life seems to go on without effort when I am filled with music.
I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.
Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them: they can be injured by us, they can be wounded; they know all our penitence, all our aching sense that their place is empty, all the kisses we bestow on the smallest relic of their presence.
I'm not perfect. But I'll always be real
Fullness of knowledge always means some understanding of the depths of our ignorance; and that is always conducive to humility and reverence.
Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him, who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulty.
It is in the gift for employing all the vicissitudes of life to one's own advantage and to that of one's craft that a large part of genius consists.
Verses which do not teach men new and moving truths do not deserve to be read.
[T]he values to which people cling most stubbornly under inappropriate conditions are those values that were previously the source of their greatest triumphs.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.