To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
1 comment:
For the record, Ayn Rand and R.W. Emerson would fight to the death over this poem.
...Well, neither is very high on violence, they probably wouldn't physically fight, but they would METAPHORICALLY fight to the death.
....and actually, philosophers metaphorically fighting to death is pretty good metaphor for my state of mind. Is there such thing as a double-metaphor?
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