Quote of the day 3rd September 2015



















I admit that there are some mixed messages here. I still included the above as a quote of the day because it also makes a valid point - reality is often contradictory.

Standing up for what you believe in, even when you are alone and everyone else thinks you are wrong, is generally a pretty brave thing to do. Providing what you believe in isn't something utterly disgusting - like support for Da'esh (the self-styled "Islamic State" for instance - that kind of integrity can be commendable even in a misguided cause.

Equally, the fact that most people think you're wrong can be for a variety of different reasons. It can be because you know something they don't. Or if can be because you actually are wrong!

Comments

Jim said…
I think Rudyard Kipling nailed it to be honest.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
Chris Whiteside said…
I seem to remember that "If" was voted the nation's favourite poem a few years ago, and it's certainly one of mine.

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