If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The tension between wanting to improve the world and wanting to enjoy it makes daily planning difficult.
- In plain terms
- I want to fix the world and also enjoy it, which is hard to do both.
- What can you take from it?
- Balancing activism and enjoyment is a common human struggle.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How do you balance duty and joy?
- What stops you from enjoying today?
Another view
It presents a false dichotomy; one can improve and enjoy simultaneously.
More from E. B. (Elwyn Brooks) White
One of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy.
Permalink to quote #21 Life's meaning has always eluded me and I guess it always will. But I love it just the same.
Permalink to quote #23 I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and resp…
Permalink to quote #20
Related quotes
If you spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live.
Lin YutangLin Yutang quote #17 The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and h…
James MichenerJames Michener quote #51 Men for the sake of getting a living forget to live.
Margaret FullerMargaret Fuller quote #96