“The animal knows everything but cannot speak.
Man can speak endlessly but knows nothing.”

Joy and happiness are the children of love, but love itself— as the driving force— is patience and compassion. Love is the root of life. But it does not simply come to us. Even if someone shows you that it exists, even if they tell you where to find it, you must still discover it for yourself. Love must grow within you, becoming an independent, immense, and genuine feeling. This is the meaning of life: the pursuit of love, the journey toward your dreams, and the unwavering movement forward despite obstacles, past or present.

A dream is always attainable; the key is to follow your true path. Look into your heart, and it will become clear that in seeking the root of life, you must walk with a clear conscience—never looking back at what has already been crushed and trampled.

There is no such thing as failure on the path to the root of life, for it is always within reach. However, life unfolds according to its own timing, independent of your personal will. No matter how hard you fight, how talented or intelligent you may be, until the right conditions emerge—until the right moment arrives—your greatest hopes will remain suspended, lingering between dream and utopia.

To love means to fight for the one you love. Too often, we see a man who seems unremarkable alongside a woman who appears exceptional. But we fail to see the hidden virtue in that man, the quality only she perceives—this is chosen love, and likely, true love.

True love cannot be one-sided. If love fails, it is often due to a lack of attention toward the one who was loved. True love, above all else, is attentiveness; closeness depends on the depth of that attention.

Luck measures happiness in breadth, while failure tests happiness in depth. Each person must find their own way to live a spiritual life amid the humility and inevitability of everyday existence.

We feel joy when we return to nature, for here, we regain our senses. Nature is the source from which, like flowers, all human talents have blossomed. To protect nature is to protect our homeland.

The essence of all living things, from the smallest insect to humankind, is love. For plants, it is water—they thirst for it, and it comes to them from both earth and sky, just as we humans experience both earthly love and heavenly love.

Man has learned to master everything except freedom. Perhaps it is easier to deal with personal needs and even life’s hardships than it is to deal with true freedom. In times of struggle, people grow strong and dream of liberation. But when freedom finally arrives, they do not know what to do with it.

Morality is the balance between the power of the mind and the power of emotion. The greater the emotion, and the closer the mind aligns with it, the greater the person becomes in their human endeavors. Some emotions overwhelm and cloud the mind, while some minds suppress and cool emotion. Truth is the triumph of conscience within man.

A man must master his emotions, and a woman must surrender to them—this, they say, is the foundation of human life.

Peace on earth can only exist where there is harmony between the soul and the mind. When the mind dominates without balance, it leads only to cold technology and war.

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~Mikhail Mikhailovich Prishvin was a Russian/Soviet writer.

©Excellence Reporter 2020